This makes no sense. When you are in edit mode, you’re always using a tool, so it’s all about switching, not dropping/exiting. If you want to switch to some selection tool when pressing esc or something, that’s up to you to assign a shortcut to it.
Ctrl + shift + numpad +
People ask for this all the time (me included lol), it’s pretty much standard, yes.
https://devtalk.blender.org/t/in-the-sub-object-levels-there-should-be-an-element-level/9396
Even for uvs:
https://devtalk.blender.org/t/island-select-plz/12319