Yeah, ever notice how the standard three dot menu in the bottom right is a bit out of reach in normal situations?Maybe all of us left handers should make a thread and complain like the right handers about the three dot menu and demand they fix it to suit our needs, so we don't have to adjust our positioning of our hands.
As a fellow southpaw, let me suggest that you simply tap the left side of the app bar to open it -- it works just like the right side, but doesn't show the three dots.
Why did you, a fairly sophisticated user (not sarcastic -- most of us arguing about this are pretty deeply involved in our phones) not know about this? Probably for the same reason that I didn't until I read it here two weeks ago. The answer is that this feature is invisible -- there's no visual cue that the app bar would work from the left.
That's also why many people who have tested user performance at using apps and finding content can demonstrate that hamburger menus are not good for users, despite what the users think of hamburgers. "Regular" users can find the hamburger, they can open the hamburger, but they don't really look around it and try out new items. And they don't do this because the available choices aren't readily apparent when staring at the screen.
We, pretty much all of us, are not "regular" in this sense. Regular people do well with listbox-based apps because the list items are the UI; tapping a list item drives the user deeper into the content. This navigational model has been tested, it works, the idea is sound. Hamburgers separate content and UI; they makes apps modal and make users think of switching from one mode to another. Yes, they can also provide direct-access to functions without requiring many taps and that's why power users or frequent users of specific apps like them.
But they are bad for regular users. Regular users don't tap things that they aren't sure of. I remember in the 1980's telling my mother that none of the buttons on the computer actually start a fire or cause anything to explode and that she should feel free to look around and experiment. She still wanted a list of things that she could do and would not try anything new on her own. While most folks today are much, much more accustomed to technology, they are still "most folks" and not "tech-obsessed folks."
Those who argue here that "hamburger isn't a big deal" really mean "I can handle it, so why the fuss?" The answer is because user experiences should not be designed to depend on the deep knowledge and engagement of sophisticated users like us. We are exactly the wrong people to say "that's obvious." Some of us arguing this point have tested various UIs to see how they impact UX. I can tell you that from our work, hamburgers menus diminish usage for "regular" people while exciting sophisticated users -- the control is polarizing.