Maxgraphic

It's been a while since I've used FreeHand, but I think locked objects are selectable, but locked layers aren't. That might be the best of both worlds. One place where "locked but selectable" is handy is for alignment. Selection in Illustrator is such a train wreck that almost anything would be an improvement.

Why not do it the Freehand way and let locked items be selectable but not editable? Then we could simply select all and unlock.

I use the space bar often with the Pen tool. It's really handy to not have to switch tools to reposition a point I just made. Here's a gif of the mechanic in Illustrator: