The Pro version is the same. When you adapt, you should find it much quicker to input with a (few) key presses/popovers rather than moving the mouse up, down, across, down again, moving down a popup menu for options and clicking as you are probably wanting (but see the screenshot below.)
Dorico has been created by the original Sibelius team as you would know, but they have rethought, reimagined how newly designed notation software would be, how it would be used and its output purposes.
Unfortunately everyone has to learn new software 
Dorico is not like any other competing software, because it is not a duplicate of any other with a different name.
Popovers take a while to get used to. Obviously you cannot memorize them all. Some like to write the pertinent ones down on paper as they find them so they are handy for next time. After a while, you get to understand how Dorico works and its speed doing this. Most of us have found this after a little practice.
In Write mode, Right zone, you will see various elements, icons as you might be wanting? You can leave it showing.
You have seen the Write menu options so you can use your mouse 
right?
Some related threads, you will find more with a search.
Recommended is First Steps before you start anything in Dorico, giving a basic overview to learn how Dorico works, unfortunately it is unlikely most would know Dorico intuitively when first starting, it does require learning.
You probably have a good reason for leaving Sibelius but do you have time to learn another? you do need to learn Dorico to be able to evaluate it. Whatever those reasons are in choosing an alternative, make sure it has enough advantages but allow some time to learn/practice input/layout etc. Many lead sheets have been created in Sibelius and some of us still use it for various purposes.
Not sure this is relevant, but if you click on a note or chord symbol and press letter P on your keyboard, it should start playing from there (Write, Engrave modes).
Dorico Preferences > Key commands has a search field for finding anything, although you might need us to help you with terminology so you can find the correct word as you might imagine.
There is Elements help here, including a glossary, left window, bottom.
I should think others will be able to comment about your other initial questions.
And please feel free to ask further questions (especially if you cannot find any answers with a search at the forum here or in the user guide help). Most here have all come from other notation software so we understand your frustration.