I tried to use gizmo tool in blender when I first started learning it, but it started getting on my nerves soon, as I had to avoid clicking it when selecting vertices etc. So I switched to g-r-s hotkeys too. It got quite precise and fast after a while.
I stay in vertex mode 90% of times and kind of like it. If you select 2 vertices you've got edge selected, and if you add two more it's face selection and you can perform both vertex & face operations on selection :) Using wacom tablet and it's lot easier to make 2-3 additional taps then pressing ctrl+tab every 5 seconds…
There's no single 'delete history' button. Scale and rotation are applied by pressing Ctrl+A and selecting the first option, Modifiers all have their own Apply button and Multires has a big Apply Multires button in its panel ;) . It should become possible to actually edit a Multires mesh at some point, but I don't know…