Hello Goober. The important thing is not the tool you use, but the skills of the user. Some people find Quark a very fast modelling tool and very advanced, but other ppl can't stand it's interface.
But, if you find that you don't like it too much, maybe you should try Qoole 99, which is the map editor used in 3D GameStudio (renamed to WED and with some small minor changes), and it's very intuitive:
http://www.volved.com/qsr/You must use these map editors in Half-Life mode, and use BSP Factory to convert the generated BSP file into a format readable by Blitz3D. We have used BSP Factory to lightmap the Sneak Behind level and export to .b3d
Good luck :)