00Ghz

+ 1.
 
Also regarding layers, move the check/visible box to the left side.

I actually prefer the coloured icons … makes everything much friendlier and more fun. 

the alternatives....my eyes burn....please no :(

Do Affinity Designer and Photo have missing features for professionals? Yes..
Do they compete with AI and PS at every level? No..not yet
Do they have enough features to be usable by professionals with some workarounds and hiccups? .... I can say yes.
 
I managed software dev for mobile in the past and it is often the case where you simply can't wait until you got all the features everyone wants or could want. Budget, missing information and a couple of other factors come in. So what Serif did was what I would do as well. Put enough features until it's ok to be used by a small to medium number of users, make that version stable and continue developing as you are doing that. Eventually in 1-2 years you will have enough to cater to most people needs, without being at risk to run out of money. And I didn't even mentioned the needed user input a dev team can get through a beta program. 
 
As for the price compared to a yearly Adobe subscription is definitely worth it. You pay about 300$ a year for a single app that you don't own and never will. Serif charges 50$ per app with let's say 1/6 of Illustrator or PS features. I say that's fair.

Linux users not spending money isn't strictly true, a few posts up someone mentioned VFX and 3D(not to mention the games industry). Effectively the movie world runs on Linux and there are an awful lot of potential seats out there. BUT (and it's a big but) you need to have certain (incredibly specific) features and a certain degree of pipelineability (python) to get anywhere with those guys, they are very well oiled machines. Interestingly, Adobe must have tens of thousands of seats in this world and there must be a good amount of financial incentive to port their software to Linux. Even then, with all of Adobe's resources, they won't. For consumer accessible software there really is little reason to develop for Linux, the market for day to day users just isn't there. Sad, but true.

the alternatives....my eyes burn....please no :(

+100 this should come way sooner. Non destructive workflow is a must

What about something like Cmd+Space then left click + move cursor to left to zoom out, left click + move cursor towards right to zoom in. Cursor position defines zoom target.
 
Same in adobe, makes tablet navigation a breeze. No need to switch between zoom tool and select tool.