Adding to the users asking Serif to fix this. I have not seen the roadmap (just searched, oh wait, you can't see it... bad sign)
I think the complaints going unheard may be due to the fact that it is hard to describe what's going on. EVERYTIME someone comes here from a search, the explanation of what a canvas and artboard are has to be repeated. Often people trying to be helpful respond "Click clip to canvas" EVERYTIME SOMEONE ELSE has to repeat "That's only for documents without an artboard" It takes a second to sink in after the support people chime in that this is by design.
If this was not a problem, it would not be hard to describe.
This should really be changed.
I know I'm supposed to say "In Illustrator... " but the artboards ARE pages on canvas. As a user I don't need to know that they are actually references to pointers to memory locations or whatever programmers need to worry about.
It is exactly the same as file icons and folder icons and windows in an OS. Users "open" a folder icon and "look inside" the folder through a window, BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO REASON TO BELIEVE THERE IS ANYTHING BUT THE OBJECTS!
My workaround, for which I am supremely grumpy, is to place rectangles at the very top of the layer stack that I will finally use to create artboards like "make cropmarks" in the software I formerly used (wink). I know this will require troubleshooting, and I haven't fully understood the whole "slices" situation, but I'm sure this doesn't solve that.
Fix it! Yes, I'm that angry user. I don't know if I'll bother with 2.0 unless this is fixed. Should we have to wait until then?
I wondered what part of Affinity's Adobe killer apps would start to become bad, I think they could be more responsive when they were smaller. I'm not laying blame on them become Adobe, just thinking about what happens when they have a solid product that is "good enough" and basic things are not taken care of.
Communication! If it seems broken and there is no word or evidence to the contrary, it's broken. Sometimes I think it would make more sense to just tell us that we are edge cases rather than not responding.
I like Affinity software. I hope they win. I will complain about this until it's fixed or I'm told it won't be fixed.