Is there ANY way to make rest notation simpler? Like make the / key mean rest and then add a value?

Like /8 is an 8th note rest, /4 is a quarter note, /2 is a half.....

All that with the dots... it would be so much easier to have a key represent a rest.

And the ability to tie them together.

/4+/8 for a quarter tied to an 8th..... It would make syncopation and anticipation SO much easier. Over a year into this and I still have no grasp of "shots". I always thought a shot is what comes after a bad joke on stage...