I agree with the sentiment of immediate availability of access to transact with the Orchard pool & Unified Addresses(UAs) for the end-user. It must be noted that NU5 itself was delayed a couple of times and has been in the works for a while. Both @NighthawkApps & ZecWallet were funded last year to deliver Orchard support by end of the year, the ZOMG had funded @cakewallet & Trezor Hardware wallet to add Orchard support as well, but with moving timelines for NU5, the teams managed to maintain the existing wallets and follow the development and deployment of NU5.
With the NU5 launch, advanced users will be able to utilize UAs through command-line interfaces using the zcashd full node wallet. I hope we see the front-end UIs developed in the coming weeks to play with UAs. UAs bring new concepts in address management and changes in user experience for providing maximum privacy when transacting with Shielded ZEC. I believe the release of wallets with end-to-end UA integration & best privacy-preserving practices incorporated might take a few weeks to months to release. It does feel odd to announce a major upgrade to trustless zk-SNARKs money without having easy-to-use wallets available on the go. But that is where we are today, we can learn from this to prepare better for the next major upgrade.
Here are a couple of existing discussions on the topic to follow: