Happy Milestone Birthday! That's a big one and I hope you celebrate in style! I hear you on carrying the weight around of several lenses plus a camera body or two and extra batteries, extra memory cards, whatever else.....the older we get the less pleasant that becomes. I'll be a few years older than you at the end of this month, and I know already that my days are probably numbered when it comes to lugging heavy gear around so I'm enjoying it while I still can.
A smaller compact camera definitely can fit the bill, depending upon what you like to shoot. Check out the Sony RX100 series of cameras, which are serious compact cameras which are easy to slip into a (large) pocket or purse and which produce really high-quality mages. The 1" sensor is larger than regular P&S cameras and the range can extend to 200mm. These small cameras, unlike many in their size range, provide a (popup) viewfinder, which I find absolutely necessary and essential.
For something which is a bit larger, but which has an amazing zoom range and feels like a small DSLR in the hands, check out the Sony RX10 IV, which I mentioned in my other post. Its range of 24-600mm can't be beat and the fixed Zeiss lens is truly remarkable. For a camera with a one-inch 20 mp sensor, it packs a wallop. I use mine for travel and for grabbing and running out to my deck to quickly fire off some shots when there is bird action occurring on the water (I live on a small lake). At the time I bought this camera I was purchasing it with a specific purpose in mind and figured that probably I wouldn't be using it much once back home again, and boy, was I surprised! It offers the benefits of lighter weight than the combination of many FF bodies and lenses, plus the resulting images can be quite good, whether shot in .jpeg or in RAW.
I also agree with the suggestion of Fujifilm cameras, as they can be wonderful for creativity while bringing results reminiscent of the old film days when one uses one of the famous film simulations.
If you're primarily interested in shooting B&W, there is also the excellent Leica Q2 Monochrom rangefinder-style cameral which again is small and easy to tuck into a bag.
I definitely can empathize with the frustrations around dealing with shooting in RAW and then dealing with editing software. After much experimentation I settled on DX0 PhotoLab, now in v.5, which feels most intuitive to me and which helps me accomplish what I need to do without as much angst as I experienced in some other programs. Capture One totally lost me, it was just overkill for my basic needs, and although I had used Photoshop many years ago I never quite was able to feel comfortable with the current iteration or with Lightroom. I have to admit that I do miss the days when we shot up a few rolls of film, took them to the local professional lab and they did up contact sheets, then we chose the images we wanted enlarged and marked them up with instructions for the lab tech. Now I'm supposed to be the photographer/artist and the digital lab tech-cum-retoucher all rolled into one! These are really several very different skill sets.
Good luck with wherever your photography adventures take you next! Sometimes it does take some trial-and-error before finally finding something which works well and helps one get the kind of images one wants....
