Altarior

Layer via copy is Ctrl + J (this also duplicates the whole layer(s) if you don't have a partial selection)
 
Unfortunately, I have also been unable to find a "Layer via Cut" command. The fastest workaround seems to be Ctrl + X (cut) followed by Ctrl + V (paste). It should paste the cut part into a new layer by default. Not a big workaround, but I still wish there was just one solid command for this to match Ctrl + J (maybe it could be Ctrl + Shift + J), but oh well.

@Altarior, @cgidesignand @Armelle,
Thanks for reporting this.
I've been able to replicate the issue here and will get it logged with the Dev team  

Hello Affinity!
Quick specs: Windows 10 Pro, Huion Kamvas Pro 24 drawing tablet
Professional artist here. I'm a long time user and lover of Affinity Photo. 95% of the time I use it for drawing, for both work and personal stuff. But yesterday I bought Affinity Photo 2, and now my brushes don't work correctly. I pressed "import custom setting from V1" when prompted to during installation of V2.
There is a stark shift in brush size around the 1px threshold (I think?). Been fiddling with the brush settings and dynamics, but can't get them to shift fluently. This happens to all brushes at low size. Can't get thin sharp brushes to taper out nicely at all.
It seems to be related to the Hardness. I noticed this problem only happens when a brush's Hardness is set to 100%. On 99% the shift in size is fluent, but the line is surprisingly blurry for 99%, so the line isn't crisp...
On a side note, the brushes seem to have been imported weirdly in general. For some reason, when V2 opened for the first time I had 2 Basic folders and 2 Gouaches folders, with the duplicate-folders containing just 1 and 2 brushes that were completely identical to some that were already in the first folders (I checked and compared all settings). Not sure why that happened.
Have tried setting 'compute acceleration' in Preferences both on and off, no difference. Also been trying with Force Pressure on and off, very little difference but didn't fix it.
All these brushes still work perfectly back in V1. Would REALLY like help with this, 'cause it would suck if I just paid for V2 only to go right back and keep using V1.
 
Nice regards,
Anja
 

PressureIssue.mp4  

I would really like to push for the ability to assign a hotkey to Protect Alpha, please! :) I toggle it on and off constantly. It's the one thing I'm missing by far the most in my workflow. Every time there is an update it's the thing I hope to see.

Composite Alpha is neat too, but it requires switching to the Channels tab from the Layers tab every time, which just adds an extra step (unless I wanna dock it just for that, but that seems like a patchy workaround, and I'd still have to move the mouse over and click a tiny icon which is the thing I'd like to not have to do anymore)