Yes, but the way I see it, the item menu is easier (and it is opened with Home, closed with End). Especially for the beginning Rogue Player. Plus, Fushigi no Dungeon (Mystery Dungeon) has an item menu that you open, and select an item to use. Since gameplay is styled off of FnD, I prefer their way of item usage.
Me myself, I do prefer the e>itemletter style of command, and I am used to it from NetHack, but unfortunately, when I started playing NetHack (I put it on my Pocket PC when I first got my Jornada) I had no clue how to do that command. It didn't take me long to figure out, but meh... Like I said, I'm styling off of Fushigi no Dungeon.