That could happen if it was a keymap property. We now have one which decides if a new node that’s being placed will be connected to underlying link when placed. I think it’s the Alt key. The issue was that the default behavior was inverted. That the auto-connection is on by default and Alt key is opt-out, not opt-in. If it would be opt-in, then it would make it easier to add for example shift.
So that if you place a new node over existing links, it just plops there. If you hold Alt, it connects to the underlying node link, and if you hold Alt+Shift, it connects to the underlying link and offsets the node around it to make space. You could also possibly hold Shift alone to offset the nodes around but not connect it to the underlying node link. This way, the option could be removed from the UI altogether, as it would become a property of the node translate modal operator.
This is great solution because:
- The state of the auto-offset would be stored with the keymap - the user preference. Not editor or scene file.
- User can easily change the user preference default value by changing the default property of the node translate modal operator. So for example they can make Shift key to opt-out of auto-offset rather than opting-in.
- At the same time we gain this flexibility, we can also remove the auto-offset from the node editor UI. The changes which add flexibility while at the same time removing UI elements instead of adding them are the best ones. It’s same great feeling as adding a new functionality or improving the existing functionality of the software by actually deleting lines of code
The only small drawback is that the Shift key is currently reserved in the Node Editor for reducing sensitivity of the node translate operation. But I don’t think anyone has ever needed to use that for node editor