The real shift patterns are like this:
They look complicated but it's not too bad when you get used to the idea. In normal use it's basically a four speed H pattern with two different ways to increase the number of gears. You have a range selector to give you 8 main gears (you shift 1 through four in low range then flip to high range and move back to 1 position to give 5 through 8) and then you have a splitter that gives every gear a high and low ratio (in order you'd go 1st low -> 1st high -> 2nd low -> 2nd high -> etc). Normally you don't need to use all the gears so you can skip some of the sequence - particularly when lightly loaded. Lo position is a particularly low ratio, and reverse is as per normal except you can split it to have a somewhat faster or slower reverse gear.
I'll admit I haven't driven a full 18 speed but I've driven 9 speeds with a range selector and a 10 speed with a splitter and both were easy enough to learn so combining the two doesn't seem as daunting as it might be to those who haven't tried either.
People sign up to app intended to share personal information about others without their permission, end up having their own personal information shared without permission - the irony is impressive.