The Reference Guide is very detailed and difficult to
read, but nothing else documents things like statements
or special object methods.

We should have a shorter, friendlier guide to the
syntax and basic types.

I find a Reference Manual and a Library Reference. I presume you are
referring to the Reference Manual. True?

I might be interested in helping create the shorter friendlier guide. I
suggest we create some guidelines or specifications for it. This might
be a task for several of us, each taking a section, or some other form
of collaboration.

Not likely to be worked on, and whether to write such a guide is a question for the docs editor (or the Doc-SIG).