> This is still what the Guide on the Mercurial site mentions as the "basic workflow" ...

I imagine you're referring to the "hg book"[1] ?

It irks me that that site hasn't been updated since ~2009, and there doesn't seem to be anything equivalent for "modern" Mercurial. Alas.

EDIT: oh, looks like there is a somewhat newer version (~2015?): https://book.mercurial-scm.org/read/part-getting-started.htm...

[1] http://hgbook.red-bean.com/