Midnight Commander vs Thunar

Midnight commander uses the full screen of the terminal in a very efficient way. It displays two panels for files horizontally. On the bottom it has the most useful commands with their corresponding key attached. All of this makes for a very intuitive interface both for beginners and experienced users.

Being a terminal application means that it's suited for people who spend most of their time on the terminal because they don't have to switch windows in order to open their file manager. It also means that they can use it both locally and remotely.

Midnight commander is easy and intuitive to use. The most common commands are displayed in the bottom (move, copy, paste, delete, edit, view, make directory). Files can be selected with the arrow keys which move the cursor through them. The Enter key goes down in a directory. To move the focus between two panels the tab key is used.

and hence easy to install by usually package manager.

Cursor+left to go to parent directory, cursor+right to go into child directory.

Unlike Nautilus, which requires the whole GNOME desktop, thunar just depends on some XFCE utilities & GTK.

While in a Thunar window, typing either a "~" or a "/" will automatically start typing into the "address-bar" and pressing enter goes straight to the typed directory.

In a thunar window, any non-directory typing will search in the current directory for the filename that you type (non-recursive, unlike Nautilus)

Select multiple files in the current folder using a wildcard pattern.

Use Custom Actions to add right-click options to do things like Open as Root, Open Git GUI, etc. You can filter the file types and filename patterns that the actions will show up for.

To add an "Open as Root" action, go to Edit, Configure custom actions. Assign a name and a description. Set Command as "gksudo xdg-open %f" (you'll need to install gksudo since pkexec won't work). Pick an icon (I prefer "changes-allow"). Under Appearance Conditions, select Directories, Text Files, and Other Files.

Supports the M4 and M5 mouse buttons for forward/back, similarly to most browsers.

With also predefined functions as insert (date, numbering,...), search/replace, etc ...

Browse files in two directories with a dual pane view.

But nothing more.

While in a Thunar window, typing a filename automatically selects the first matching file in the current folder.

Thunar can use the editable accelerator feature of XFCE.

Run xfce4-appearance-settings in terminal, go to settings tab, check "enable editable accelerator". Now open any command in Thunar menu, hover to a command, i.e. your custom "places" or your custom command, then press any combination to assign a shortcut to it.
be careful though, cause it will also remove the shortcut from other command.

Use tabs to open fewer windows. New tabs automatically start in the same location. Tabs can be detached.