You hit those nails square on the head, it is really true, the information is sparse and you're always left to translate it for whatever you're actually doing.
In the top left corner of the viewport click on the center label (yours says high quality), go down to materials and turn on "realistic materials with maps".
If you click any of the handles on your manipulator, coordinates will appear at the bottom left corner of the Maya window, just below the MEL command line.