Kuttyjoe

Yes. That was my point.

This is a good request.  DrawPlus has a super customizable workspace.  When working with just a stylus, I'm using completely custom toolbars and workspace where I've mixed and matched items from the toolbox, items from the toolbar, even items from the drop down menus into two horizontal toolbars.  Also, I moved the Help menu inside the Window menu, and other things have been moved into the View menu, to create a shorter menu on the top and leave more room for tools horizontally across the top.  This is the workspace I created for a tablet PC, but I ended up using it on my desktop with my Cintiq as well.  Look at the attached image and notice the two toolbars on the very top.  Everything is mixed and matched up there, in exactly the way that I believe I need them to be.  Of course, the undo/redo are there as well and can be repositioned, anywhere.

Clip Studio does rotation even better than Photoshop. It doesn't have a rotation "tool" which must be used.  Screen rotation is done by key modifier and mouse or stylus drag, and no giant compass appears in the middle of the screen.  In Photoshop, I had to waste a precious button on my Wacom EK remote just for the screen rotation tool.  If Serif is going to do a proper rotation function, I hope they take notes from Clip Studio Paint and not Photoshop.    Also, if you hold the same key modifier and double tap the screen, it resets the screen rotation to default.  It's perfection.

This is a good point.  Different users would have very different perspectives and needs for the same software.  Jet may be coming from an engineer's perspective, you have an Illustrator's perspective, and I would personally have a production artist's perspective.  Jet is looking at precision.  You are looking at free form drawing, while I'm looking at the clock and asking, how efficient the tool and workflow would be.  I think though that Affinity Designer is absolutely being promoted for Illustration work so the blob brush makes sense.

The Blob works better and faster than the way he did it, but even better would be to use a vector paint bucket (It was called Flood Fill in Serif's old DrawPlus) to just click once and fill the enclosed area with color.  

Corel has been changing it's purchasing policies steadily ever since Adobe went subscription. They are quickly moving in the same direction.  First, they made the subscription merely optional.  Next, they changed the upgrade cycle from 2 years to 1 year for perpetual licensing.  That was a big change because at this point, the cost of subscribing was 1 dollar cheaper than perpetual licensing.  Next and critically, they have change the upgrade policy to where your software is only eligible for upgrade for 1 year.  If you miss 1 year/1 upgrade cycle, you will need to pay the full price for the software after that if you want to "upgrade".  So you can either subscribe and pay $200.00 a year, or upgrade every year and pay $200.00 a year.  This is how companies that criticized Adobe and used Adobe to create more sales of their own software are following in Adobe's footsteps.

Pre subscription?  You're talking about pre-Astute Graphics subscription.  We're talking about Pre Adobe subscription.  So actually it's you that are wrong.  And offensive.
This is from the email I received from Astute Graphics:
"Thanks for your reply and apologies for the delay in mine.
Phantasm CS Studio v1 is now 8 years old and contained elements of  our new plug-ins Phantasm v3, Rasterino and InkQuest, such is it’s age it didn’t have a serial number and as such if you have uninstalled it or if you are using a newer machine on which it has not been installed, it would no longer be possible to reinstall it. "
And so, I paid for it.  I still have the old PC to run it.  I still have Adobe CS3.  I still have all of my payment information. I install but can not register.  Nothing I said is wrong.  Astute Graphics essentially has taken my money and refuses to allow me to use the product which I paid for.  And now has an attitude about it.

Pre subscription?  You're talking about pre-Astute Graphics subscription.  We're talking about Pre Adobe subscription.  So actually it's you that are wrong.  And offensive.
This is from the email I received from Astute Graphics:
"Thanks for your reply and apologies for the delay in mine.
Phantasm CS Studio v1 is now 8 years old and contained elements of  our new plug-ins Phantasm v3, Rasterino and InkQuest, such is it’s age it didn’t have a serial number and as such if you have uninstalled it or if you are using a newer machine on which it has not been installed, it would no longer be possible to reinstall it. "
And so, I paid for it.  I still have the old PC to run it.  I still have Adobe CS3.  I still have all of my payment information. I install but can not register.  Nothing I said is wrong.  Astute Graphics essentially has taken my money and refuses to allow me to use the product which I paid for.  And now has an attitude about it.

Captain's log.  Star date 2057, in the Affinity Sector D.  There are rumors that an enemy has developed a powerful selector weapon which renders our defenses obsolete.... 

I don't see anything wrong with pointing to another software as reference.  I suppose it feels weird since Illustrator is where most of the ideas are coming from, while most people are running away from Illustrator.  LOL  That may feel a little odd.  But when one software company copies from another, consumers win.  It gives us choice.

Pre subscription?  You're talking about pre-Astute Graphics subscription.  We're talking about Pre Adobe subscription.  So actually it's you that are wrong.  And offensive.
This is from the email I received from Astute Graphics:
"Thanks for your reply and apologies for the delay in mine.
Phantasm CS Studio v1 is now 8 years old and contained elements of  our new plug-ins Phantasm v3, Rasterino and InkQuest, such is it’s age it didn’t have a serial number and as such if you have uninstalled it or if you are using a newer machine on which it has not been installed, it would no longer be possible to reinstall it. "
And so, I paid for it.  I still have the old PC to run it.  I still have Adobe CS3.  I still have all of my payment information. I install but can not register.  Nothing I said is wrong.  Astute Graphics essentially has taken my money and refuses to allow me to use the product which I paid for.  And now has an attitude about it.

No conversion is reliable so if the projects are important then you need to be working in the same software.  You can't trust that one program faithfully export a file to another format.

Clip Studio does rotation even better than Photoshop. It doesn't have a rotation "tool" which must be used.  Screen rotation is done by key modifier and mouse or stylus drag, and no giant compass appears in the middle of the screen.  In Photoshop, I had to waste a precious button on my Wacom EK remote just for the screen rotation tool.  If Serif is going to do a proper rotation function, I hope they take notes from Clip Studio Paint and not Photoshop.    Also, if you hold the same key modifier and double tap the screen, it resets the screen rotation to default.  It's perfection.

Clip Studio does rotation even better than Photoshop. It doesn't have a rotation "tool" which must be used.  Screen rotation is done by key modifier and mouse or stylus drag, and no giant compass appears in the middle of the screen.  In Photoshop, I had to waste a precious button on my Wacom EK remote just for the screen rotation tool.  If Serif is going to do a proper rotation function, I hope they take notes from Clip Studio Paint and not Photoshop.    Also, if you hold the same key modifier and double tap the screen, it resets the screen rotation to default.  It's perfection.

I think the answer to this question was already explained very well:
..."but for digital illustration which assumes an artists mindset, there should be direct intuitive drawing and painting tools. Natural, direct, efficient, intuitive."
That makes perfect sense.  Artist learn to draw with pens and brushes.  They bring those skills over to the digital world.  They would like to keep working the way they've learned.  Artists are results driven.  They are not counting how many unnecessary points are created on a shape when they draw it.  It's not like the extra points cost money.  You're agonizing over excessive points on a path, (Illustrator resolves that example you posted literally with just a single click on the line), but Illustrators are not.  The question this is, what is the focus on these programs.  If you look at how Serif is promoting this software the answer to this is very clear.  It's a tool for Illustrators.  People like you and me, trying to bend it to do other things are just out of luck.  You will need to stick with your beloved Freehand, and I will have to continue to rely on Illustrator, but when I do Illustratations, I can still find some uses for apps like Affinity Designer and others.  But, I'm being realistic about it.
Vector based programs and also raster programs have long since outgrown their original basic concepts and tool sets, and have become something greater.  I read all the time from random people who say, "Photoshop is not a painting program because it's primarily a photo editor".  I'm pretty sure that by the time Photoshop had reached version 2 or 3, it was already growing beyond simply being used to edit photos.  By version 4 you could have a caree with Photoshop without ever editing a photo.  Now we have software that combines the both vector and raster into a single program and it's very useful and I would say, amazing.
Beauty is still in the eye of the beholder, is it not?  If you find something displeasing, the next person disagrees and loves it.  Also, there's plenty to be said of "instant gratification", or I would say, instant results.  Instant results equal bigger paycheck.  Time is money.   As a freelance artist, most of my work dried up during the coronavirus lockdowns, but I gained a lot of new work in vectorizing art and preparing for print with limited colors.  I have to make a certain amount of money per hour and that would be impossible without a high quality vector tracing feature.  I'm absolutely relying on it.  The value of vector tracing in my opinion can not be overstated.  You just need a broader understanding of how people are actually using it.  You only understand it's use as a creative tool, which is fine. But some of us are using it as a production tool.
No, that is more accurately a primary advantage of vector based drawings.  The primary intent of vector drawing is whatever the artist primarily intends to create with the software.
You're putting constraints on artists and telling them what they must use to create art?
and....painting with vectors.  It has it's own aesthetic too, right?  If I were make an argument in favor of painting in vector software, that would be the strongest argument that I could come up with.
That is a question that doesn't really need an answer.  A better question is probably, why not?  You make strong arguments against things that are not causing problems so why argue against painting with vectors, or using vector tracing features?  None of it is hurting anybody.  People are making great use of it.  Creating great art, and improving their productivity.  What exactly is the reason why these things are troubling you?
Vs a pen tool, or brush tool, the main attraction is probably workflow.  You could achieve the same result with all 3 tools but you pick the one with the best workflow.  It's not more complicated than that.  If you suggest some features for the brush tool which gives it a similar workflow to the blob brush, then that is fine too.  Either way, artists should pick the tool that gives them the best workflow for what they are doing.  I may move a single piece of art through Serif's DrawPlus, over to Photoshop or Clip Studio, and possibly into Illustrator as well.  I'm using the best tool for specific tasks to achieve a result as quickly as possible.  Speed is among my primary goals.

This is a good point.  Different users would have very different perspectives and needs for the same software.  Jet may be coming from an engineer's perspective, you have an Illustrator's perspective, and I would personally have a production artist's perspective.  Jet is looking at precision.  You are looking at free form drawing, while I'm looking at the clock and asking, how efficient the tool and workflow would be.  I think though that Affinity Designer is absolutely being promoted for Illustration work so the blob brush makes sense.

This is a good point.  Different users would have very different perspectives and needs for the same software.  Jet may be coming from an engineer's perspective, you have an Illustrator's perspective, and I would personally have a production artist's perspective.  Jet is looking at precision.  You are looking at free form drawing, while I'm looking at the clock and asking, how efficient the tool and workflow would be.  I think though that Affinity Designer is absolutely being promoted for Illustration work so the blob brush makes sense.

Because people are getting the point that constructive ideas are just wasting time.  Ranting is what's left when you ask for something for 5 years, and get nowhere.  Sooner or later people will understand that the feature is not going to happen.
 
The advantage of Illustrator's implementation is speed.  Plain and simple.  Just one tap and it finds exactly what you're looking for.  You can bind it into an action and work even faster.  Coreldraw has a similar implementation as Freehand.  Longwinded, tabbed pages of questions.  After using that just once, you never want to use it again.  That's why people created macros in Coreldraw to immitate how Illustrator works as closely as possible.  Although the macros are good, it's probably just not really possible to truly reach the level of speed and simplicity that you find with Illustrator.
And I have yet to see Illustrator's simple and fast implementation in any 2D drawing program.  Both have merits.  I personally wouldn't be able to work with how Freehand does it, or Coreldraw.

That's just a single feature request, still unrealized, and there are many others also not realized.  As I said, Serif has their own plans and it doesn't necessarily line up with what users are asking for.  Serif has not "messed up" just because they're doing what is profitable for their company.  I suspect that the majority of people don't care about the higher profiles 5 year old feature requests of people trying to switch from Illustrator and that could be why Serif does not need to prioritize any of those feature requests.

Maybe they require 10 years so, the glass is half full.

I don't believe they've messed up.  I believe they're executing their own plan which doesn't necessarily match up with the wishes of some of it's userbase.  Meanwhile, tons of people declare their love for Affinity Designer and hatred of the program that actually has the features that people are begging for.

I don't believe they've messed up.  I believe they're executing their own plan which doesn't necessarily match up with the wishes of some of it's userbase.  Meanwhile, tons of people declare their love for Affinity Designer and hatred of the program that actually has the features that people are begging for.

Because people are getting the point that constructive ideas are just wasting time.  Ranting is what's left when you ask for something for 5 years, and get nowhere.  Sooner or later people will understand that the feature is not going to happen.
 
The advantage of Illustrator's implementation is speed.  Plain and simple.  Just one tap and it finds exactly what you're looking for.  You can bind it into an action and work even faster.  Coreldraw has a similar implementation as Freehand.  Longwinded, tabbed pages of questions.  After using that just once, you never want to use it again.  That's why people created macros in Coreldraw to immitate how Illustrator works as closely as possible.  Although the macros are good, it's probably just not really possible to truly reach the level of speed and simplicity that you find with Illustrator.
And I have yet to see Illustrator's simple and fast implementation in any 2D drawing program.  Both have merits.  I personally wouldn't be able to work with how Freehand does it, or Coreldraw.

It's kind of amazing that this can't be disabled.

If you're on Windows you should check out old Serif DrawPlus X8, the last version before it was discontinued.  You can buy it today on Ebay for 2 dollars.  I've used it to create my own custom toolbar which combines items from the toolbox with items from the toolbar and also items from within menus.  You can place the undo/redo wherever you like.  I think that Serif PagePlus X9 can also do it but you might have to splurge 10 dollars to get that one.  It's discontinued software so you can use it for as long as Windows supports it.  After that, it'll be gone forever unless you are willing to try and maintain an old PC, but that is challenging.