Good Review, and I agree...
We drove X3 in the hunt for replacing my CEO's 7 yr old Hyundai Tucson.
The X3 was 'nice' but literally as 'big' in outside dimensions/feel as our 17 yr old E53 X5, and while she loves that car on our many trips, she was not looking for that size car for her daily errand/trip driving.
She settled on S Drive X1, which ain't my Fave car as I have noted, but she likes it.
The I Drive in her X1, same as in the X3, is a step in, step in, step out fookin nightmare, imo. It has layered tasks that a simple freakin knob would do in a NY Second, not minutes of eyes off the road fiddling.
Even two sessions with the BMW Dlr 'genius' leave us checking our notes and scratching our heads when we get home from the tutorial...maybe it is just a Geezer affliction.
Our friends have a '17 X3 and they like, though they noted the so-so mpg...fwiw, my CEO's '17 X1 does 30+ on trips and has averaged 27 in 7600 miles of use, not that mpg is high on our concern list.
GL, mD