Maybe I'm missing something. If so, let me know.
The process of creating a chart is unintuitive and cumbersome. A big
step backwards from 2003. The manual says to just select your data
and insert the chart. What I find is that 95% of the time, I have to
re-do the data selection. If I highlight two columns and insert the
graph, Excel thinks both columns are two different series instead of x
and y axis.

I create two columns, label one of them "X", one of them "Y". Put
some numbers below that. Now insert an XY chart. One would think
that it could figure out "2 columns selected...inserting an XY
chart....first column must be the X, second column must be the Y".
Nope. Excel thinks both are Series1 and Series2, with no X axis
selected.

Dumb!

What happened to the Chart Wizard?