chessboard

For 100% K, always set up a CMYK document, not gray!

I can confirm @affinians description. Almost the same behavior here. I have not tested enough, but it seems to me, that Affinity Photo V2 doesn't have this problem. AP V2 seems to me to be more stable than AD all in all. But this may be related to the different kind of projects I use both for.
AD V1 doesn't show this lags either on my system.
My system: Windows 11, Intel i7 11370H, 32GB ram, Intel Iris XE Graphics/nvidia RTX 3060 TI Laptop

I assume that greyscale isn't treated as percentage of the solid printing colour black. That's a missunderstanding of what the greyscale mode is in my eyes.
I would suggest to use CMYK mode for print documents and adjust the colour as CMYK (in your case as 100% Black) and use no other colour model if I want to be sure to get the right print colour. All other colour models have to be rasterized for printing. That's in the nature of printing colours.

@tatanka
I just tried this in Publisher V2. Admittedly in a very simple way, but it's all about principle.
I made a one page document in Publisher with CMYK/8 profile. Drew a shape and set the fill colour to CMYK 0/0/0/100. I then exported this as PDF with "rasterize: nothing", colour space: CMYK and colour profile as in document (ISO coated v2 300% ECI).
I than checked the PDF in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and there the black shape is still at CMYK 0/0/0/100. The colour separations in Photoshop show colour only for black channel.
Perhaps you should check Publisher again.

Sorry, but could you please explain what grey=0 means? I know only the print colours cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Is grey a spot colour (solid colour)?
BTW, why do you export the logo from Designer in PDF or EPS format to place it in Publisher? You can use the native Designer format.

I can confirm @affinians description. Almost the same behavior here. I have not tested enough, but it seems to me, that Affinity Photo V2 doesn't have this problem. AP V2 seems to me to be more stable than AD all in all. But this may be related to the different kind of projects I use both for.
AD V1 doesn't show this lags either on my system.
My system: Windows 11, Intel i7 11370H, 32GB ram, Intel Iris XE Graphics/nvidia RTX 3060 TI Laptop

The default grid in Photo is a Pixel Grid, which you'll only see if you're zoomed in far enough. On an empty document I just created, zooming in to 800% showed the grid.
  
Ctrl+' works for me.
 

I'm in the same boat (so far, for Designer 2.0).
Without having time for deeper analysis it needs a certain (still small like 20-30 upwards) number of layers and the UX will start to become lagging.

This is most notable when navigating through the layer stack. For instance, after clicking on a layer there's always a small lag before the layer gets its selection highlight as well as its objects selected (with the move tool active).
Once this has happened to start, a brush move also starts to loose its smooth "flow", sometimes the frames drop to 0 fps (stuttering).

The usual recommendations (gpu rendering on/off etc.) don't have any obvious effects. It's no showstopper, as I can continue to do my hobbyist things - but it is obvious and reminds me of my past experiences 15-20 years ago when the machine was always to slow for nearly every non-standard usage scenario.

cpu: ryzen 2600x
ram: 32 GB
Win 10 2H22 (latest release)

I beg to differ. I have built a sustainable small business using publisher.
After my husband died suddenly leaving me with four small children to support. I purchased all 3 Affinity apps during their sale for less than the price of 1 month of Adobe apps. 
I had little skill or experience having been mainly a housewife until this point. After a lot of "blood, sweat and tears" (and lots of cursey words) I learned all I could about the applications. Launched my business, and here I am a few years down the line. A small business owner able to support myself and children. 
Probably not a "professional" according to your standards, but certainly a professional to those I have been able to support. 
I will forever be grateful to Affinity for their generous affordability, and numerous tutorials available during what was a horrendous time. 
And also SERIF during all the hubub and negativity here at the minute, I hope this post will highlight the hope that was brought to one small family. 
Wise words my grandfather taught me- "A poor workman will always blame his tools."

This had been said, or strongly implied, in a number of posts. As I've said, there is nothing wrong with making complaints or offering constructive criticism, but everyone has a right to express "their" own views, not just those making negative comments! If some people wish to make positive comments, praising Affinity products or Serif, they have a perfect right to do so, without being dismissed or insulted in the ways I mentioned.
All I'm asking is that everyone is allowed to express "their" opinion honestly, without fear of being attacked for expressing a different view to that of the OP! These forums should be for open discussion by everyone, whatever their views (as long as they stick to the forum guidelines!)
For example, this thread is titled "V2 is a downgrade". I accept that this may be some people's honest opinion. However, I see no reason why I, or anyone else, should not be allowed to disagree and say that they think it is a valid upgrade from v1, well worth the upgrade price!
The idea of forums is to discuss things. Not just to make a statement, expecting people to agree with you, but dismissing any opposing views. It comes across very much as: "we are "experts" / "professionals" and are therefore right in our opinions; anyone who disagrees, doesn't know what they are talking about, doesn't understand, or are "fanboys", and should keep their opinions to themselves."
 

The cat tool has been around since very early in the version 1 apps.  It might not have been documented before?  Otherwise the only thing that is "new" is that they changed the shape of the cat in the ongoing effort to make it less nice to look at, and made the icon look more like a cow compared to the way it used to look.
Similarly it is nothing new that not all apps have all tools and features.  That is intentional, like it or not.

Thanks @Pšenda. This helped. Now it works as I am used to.
I will mark this question as solved.

Preferences, Tools options.

I really wish there was some way of locking a layer so I couldn't change anything about it. 

Unfortunately, it's the same here. After some zooming and panning the screen sooner or later AD stops working, as seen in the video above.
Very hard to reproduce as it doesn't seem to depend on the same steps. Once I can work for a longer time (say 20 minutes) without AD crashing, sometimes it crashes after just some zooming. You never know when it will happen, but it will. At least in my experience.

There is a storm of bug reports and general indignation on V2 on the forum. Although I understand some of them (especially related to the new Windows installer), I just wanted to say thank you to developers. V2 installed, transferred, activated, and worked great from the very first second. I also welcome the MSIX installer and sandboxed Windows app (I hate the tens of years old concept of installing apps and polluting the system registry). And last, but not least, I love new features (although quite half-baked sometimes), and some great are just to come, I believe. I can imagine, you're quite disappointed by these negative reactions, but please, there are people still loving you.

Hmm never like separation mode in any program. As others noted it wastes to much space.

The same here. People so outraged by the lack of features should start developing them themselves.
Paolo
 

As a workaround you could try the Shape Builder tool with the 'create new shape from selected areas' to create a new object, and place that new object underneath your linework.

Please allow to show Trash Bin, Undo a Redo buttons. (iPad app)

That may or may not be a legitimate request. I personally hate the Mac way to have no application frames and the ability to see other app palettes or windows behind the app in front and was really glad about Adobe introducing the application frames. But if it would be optional, I would have no problem with this.
I'm sorry to take your request here as a reason for another topic, but it is another example of this, that the tone here on the forum lately leaves a lot to be desired. At least a "please" would not have hurt the desire. "Give me back" reads like it was yours before and Serif stole it from you.
A great many users here are very demanding and formulate their criticism in a way as if Serif had personally insulted them with the appearance of V2.

That may or may not be a legitimate request. I personally hate the Mac way to have no application frames and the ability to see other app palettes or windows behind the app in front and was really glad about Adobe introducing the application frames. But if it would be optional, I would have no problem with this.
I'm sorry to take your request here as a reason for another topic, but it is another example of this, that the tone here on the forum lately leaves a lot to be desired. At least a "please" would not have hurt the desire. "Give me back" reads like it was yours before and Serif stole it from you.
A great many users here are very demanding and formulate their criticism in a way as if Serif had personally insulted them with the appearance of V2.

That may or may not be a legitimate request. I personally hate the Mac way to have no application frames and the ability to see other app palettes or windows behind the app in front and was really glad about Adobe introducing the application frames. But if it would be optional, I would have no problem with this.
I'm sorry to take your request here as a reason for another topic, but it is another example of this, that the tone here on the forum lately leaves a lot to be desired. At least a "please" would not have hurt the desire. "Give me back" reads like it was yours before and Serif stole it from you.
A great many users here are very demanding and formulate their criticism in a way as if Serif had personally insulted them with the appearance of V2.

This is not true. You're conflating two different technologies here, MSIX (a packaging / installation technology, nothing to do with design or UI frameworks, or tiles or tablets, or touch screens etc) with UWP. The latter was their failed attempt at a new design metaphor and UI framework.
 

I have no troubles like that with the Affinity 2 apps on my Windows 11 desktop or Windows 10 laptop machines. The apps operate for me just as they did when they were installed the old way.