For example, it generally takes two or three passes where she walks right over/through an object to get in the exact position to pick up something useful, giving the impression that she is blind or stupid (or just top-heavy?). Then after she has picked it up, you have to interrupt gameplay to check the inventory to find out what it was.

This is minor compared to "steering" Lara. To aim her in a specific direction, you have two choices: press the right or left arrow key and, more often than not, have her (and the camera view) spin wildly around farther than you wanted, or tap an arrow key and have her adjust her heading in such minute increments it takes many taps to get her lined up. Most of the time you want something in between. It would even be OK if there was a consistent increment to her turns but no, sometimes it takes five taps to execute a 90 degree turn, sometimes it takes ten. And even then, she may end up not exactly facing a direction but be off a little causing you to attempt course correcting en route. The result is frequently an unintentionally humorous scene with her bouncing from one wall to another as she dashes to the next point of interest. No doubt this is the reason the groan she used to make when she hit a wall has been eliminated in TR3.

It would appear that the learning curve in a Tomb Raider game isn't about the game as such, its about getting fluent on the controls and making Lara move through the environments with grace and style to match that posh English accent. This can be achieved, up to a point. After that it is trial and error. Jump, turn, dash, shoot and cross your fingers that she executes these moves as you desire. Timing seems to be a hit or miss affair.