I have a similar list of requests. I've downloaded the trial this week to see if Designer can replace Adobe Illustrator for me in my daily workflow. I use Illustrator to prepare technical drawings (electrical SLDs), which involves a lot of curve and point manipulation. Arguably the correct program for this is AutoCad or the like so I do know my use case isn't a common one!
So far Designer looks pretty good but not quite there yet for my requirements. To illustrate(!) the point I've attached an example of one of my diagrams for reference.
ability to drag (marquee) select or freeform (wand) select individual points on curves
ability to drag select a combination of objects and nodes and move all together at the same time
ability to align selected points independently from the non-selected points on the curve
arrow heads including one or both ends, drawn at end of line or centred to end of line, different magnifications per end, and arrow head options like solid or empty squares, triangles, circles, etc. (see attachment for examples)
the equivalent of holding down Option while using the Direct Select Tool in Illustrator
keyboard shortcut for Node Tool break, join, etc.
Scissors tool
I hope you get there soon. I've signed up for your mailing list so I'll be able to keep an eye on your progress but for now I'll stick with Illustrator CS2 ;)
