There’s the Time Remap tool hidden under the slip tool, you don’t have to open the clip in the viewer and it doesn’t effect the rest of the time line. From what I read it doesn’t look like many people were actually concerned with answering your question and instead opted for calling you a whiner for disliking something within the program. I work in both Premiere and FCP and I agree with you, changing speed in FCP is a huge and needless pain.
I wish people understood that this forum is here for helping others, not to tell others they are wrong for thinking different.