Blender 3D feels like it was made by aliens. From the UI to the key bindings, it all is quite hard to get into.

Have you actually used MODO? Blender's UI is obtuse sometimes, but so is the UI of almost every modelling software I have ever used in my entire career. Unless you have a compelling reason to drop that kind of cash on it, one based ideally on actually having used it somewhere else and being familiar with it, I'd say it's not a great investment. Blender or some other free tool will be sufficient to start with. More than sufficient.

You don't need to spend a lot of money on tutorials either. Or any, really. You can learn all this stuff with freely available resources and I'd caution you to be very thrifty about your purchases at this phase.

Blender's UI is obtuse sometimes, but so is the UI of almost every modelling software I have ever used in my entire career.

This is overwhelmingly true. I've never been able to understand what the hell the issue is. They're all really terrible. Blender isn't anything like the worst offender either.

I primarily work on 2D and intentionally retro-styled 3D games.

I develop on a PC I bought for $150 in 2013. I test for low-end performance on a mid-range PC from 2005. In a few years I'll probably retire the older PC and use my current machine for low-end performance testing. I've never paid for developer tools, either.
Spending a small fortune on development PCs and software is a waste of funds better spent on paying someone for work (once you get to that point)

Game development takes an incredibly long time to learn to do well. Individual games take a long time even for the experienced.