First Elektron I got was an Analog Four mk1 and I’ve NEVER been so frustrated over any hardware gear in my life.
When you learned it, it’s easy and fast to use. Hang in there!
On other gear it would be a good advice to say “save often” so you don’t lose any sounds, patterns or entire projects. But with Elektron I would say you might expect to fail saving and loose stuff all the time while you’re learning.
The Mk2 might be better with more dedicated buttons and the firmware has evolved of course.
External control is a bit hidden away via the multi map feature. (Took quite a while before I found it back in the day.)
Here’s a example: Multi Map to transpose and switch patterns