If I could take a piece of chicken out of the freezer, put it in the microwave and hit 'defrost' or 'cook' without having to look at the little sticker in the door that tells me which program I need, and without having to enter the weight, then the UI would be much improved.

Sensor cook is what you need. I have a rather old microwave with an earlier version of this, and it works decently. Toss in a few slices of old pizza, hit sensorcook 5, and come back when it says it's done. Ture, you still need to press two buttons, but on newer ones, the food buttons are laveled instead of having a chart with numbers.