Hmm, it sounds more like the game's overall strategy/style just doesn't agree with your own...
Possible.
I suspect it'd be the same if I were to try playing the game you're talking about. I can never get *anywhere* in those "everything is unidentified because your character is a damn moron" sorts of roguelikes. Gimme a week at it, and I'll somehow have made backwards progress. That game you describe there would probably just eat me. Many times.
Scrolls are
never bad to read. I mean, don't until you have:
1) an unidentified item (that isn't a potion or scroll)
2) an item you want to upgrade (usually either: wand, non-starting armor, decent weapon*)
3) 3+ scrolls
*The shortsword the fighter starts with, brass knuckles (they're super fast), etc.
Then you just read all of them when it's safe. You'll usually have at least one of either [Upgrade, Identify, Enchant] all of which you want to ID early. Don't enchant armor, it's not worth it (all of the enchants are dubious IMO, they give you some Benefit X and some Detriment Y, its super weird; all the weapon enchants are straight bonus effect). The rest "do stuff" to nearby monsters.
Potions there's two options with:
Drink them
Throw them
Drinking the bad potions are minorly detrimental (either wait until you're about to lose to a monster and you haven't IDd the health potion yet, or pick somewhere safe, near both a closed door and a puddle of water; door for the poison cloud, puddle for the fire) while tossing the good potions (there are ~three) is a moderate loss (depending). If you already IDed all three good potions, you can chuck one at a monster and not feel bad. If you haven't, don't chuck a potion you have
two of, its less likely to be the good ones.
IDing wands is "pick it up, zap it into a corner of the room" as it will always ID the effect even if it wasn't apparent. Wands usually have 2 charges max when you find them, if you activate a wand and it has none left, you'll ID its max number. Sometimes they'll be upgraded already and have 3.
Rings: just read a scroll of ID. Rings are almost never worth equipping in the first place, even if you know what they are (due to the way they take damage) and cursed ones can really hose you. Same holds true for unidentified armor and weapons. However, unidentified items that are equipped do eventually self-analyze (takes about a floor).
That's pretty much everything. The only other thing to note is that there are some "secret access" rooms that require certain items to get into. Room full of fish: invisibility potion (the fish grant no exp, they are not worth killing, although they do drop "mystery meat" which can be cooked into food). Room full of traps/pit: potion of levitation. Etc. One of these items is guaranteed to spawn on the same level, I've frequently been able to narrow down my carried potions to 1 or 2 (rarely 3) for the one I need for the given room. Drink or throw as appropriate.
I don't worry about wasting hostile-action scrolls because their effect on monsters is both resistable and not very long lasting. In fact, I've never used a scroll with the intent to stun/freeze/frighten/sleep monsters because it's not worth it. I've occasionally used potions to such effect and even then I'm very picky about what potion and how (fire potions do like 2 damage + burn, and if the monster steps on a puddle, the burn goes out--it is, however, SUPER EFFECTIVE against fly swarms, as a burning fly swarm that splits is now two swarms that are both on fire. Also, they can't step in puddle,
they're flying).
