Let me translate this to designers: no matter what software you use (Adobe, Affinity, whatever), if you're doing print stuff, do not send source files to the printers. They will find any reason to charge you fees for anything they don't like. Instead, learn how to prepare a proper print-ready PDF. Talk to your printer about this. If they don't accept PDFs then find a printer from the 21st century.
If you've used Adobe apps for 40 years, learn the differences between their apps and Affinity's. Don't just assume that everything must work the same. For example:
In Affinity overprinting is applied to global colors, not on individual fills and strokes. You have to adjust your workflow if you do overprinting.
"Need to pull down menus to change stroke weights and type sizes" – The shortcuts for changing the stroke width are the square brackets [ ]. The shortcuts for changing the font size are the same like in Adobe apps. Learn the software if you want to use it.
"non-printable layers for die cut rules" - This is important only if you output files directly from the source application. But for a PDF-based workflow, just make a spot color and name it "dieline" or "FPO" (for position only).
