Special characters in Gutenberg

In the old editor, you simply clicked on the special character button (omega symbol) to insert special characters into a post or page, and from there you could choose from several dozen of the most common special characters you might need to insert.

But in Gutenberg, you now have to insert html code?

I spent half the morning researching this because it doesn’t seem logical that the latest greatest new WordPress editor would take such a step backward with a simple common practical tool.

But I haven’t been able to find any other solution.

Is this right? Thanks.

(Sorry if I sound frustrated. I am!)