I found using axis restriction by MMB rather limited than useful, especially with 3d cursor as a pivot.
Direct key-driven axis restriction provides a better viewplane-independent control which also includes flexible switching between global and local axis transforms (GX and GXX)
However, having navigation during transform as an option seems to be a safe step.
It is a bit more restrictive than pressing GX or GXX, but it is way faster and way more intuitive. When doing constrained movement with a G+XYZ shortcuts user needs to have awareness of the axis orientation, and this takes time and need to check view orientation icon in the top right, plus you need to do hand movement to press 2 shortcuts. With MMB constraint it is extremely intuitive because I donât need to think about what axis should I lock movement after pressing G, I can just point it into direction I want it locked and that is it, and since I already started movement with my mouse in that direction it is a continuation of the movement which is amazing. As mentioned, during modeling, and I am doing it 8 hrs per day 5-6 days a week, this intuitive and fast version is a huge time saver.
I ⌠I did not know this was possible. 
Donât know if it is able to override my GXX muscle memory but it is always interesting what basics one still doesnât know about after all those years.
Honestly, I didnât know about âMMB Axis constraintâ either. Normally I use G-X-DRAG, or I drag the gizmo. Tried the MMB constraint for a bit yesterday; I like using that method the least. I find 2mouse-button operations to be physically uncomfortable after several minutes, and less precise to drag the mouse (due to extra parts of my hand locking down on the mouse.)
I can certainly see why others would like that method, but itâs not for me.
Yeah, me neither. It just goes to show how much of an impact learning something for the first time and then imprinting it into muscle memory really is. And why so many people can get to a point of unreasonable and emotional about not changing existing conventions even if they might be better.
The thing youâve learned is going to be the thing you want to keep using. No matter if itâs just small things in your software or even the software itself.
I donât understand why a user needs to navigate during a transform operation.
Perhaps Iâm missing the obvious, but for 20 years Iâve been setting the view to whatever it needs to be to accomplish the transform, then perform the transform.
I had a similar conversation with an addon developer. I found a particular feature a bit difficult to use, due to the keyboard+mouse contortions. They replied it was due to the user being able to rotate the viewport while simultaneously performing the desired function - and (in that particular case) I couldnât determine why the user would need to rotate the view during the procedure in the first place.
I wouldnât know how well this works with a mouse, but with a pen itâs quite natural.
Me neither, I didnât understand before I tried it. Did you try a build ?
I tried the one from 1-2 versions ago, but reading through the thread, it appears that I did not try the one where this potential conflict existed.
(And if I did, as I was not aware of the MMB axis feature at that time, I would not have tested it on that anyway⌠Or, at least not understood that there was a potential conflict.)
Blender could really improve its abilities if it would use a âstickyâ option for any variety of settings it puts in place.
Example: The user can change how they select things by marquee selections (square, circle, lasso, etc.) I will admit I hate Blender with a passion that a single hotkey can change these selection settings over and over. Instead of being a sticky static setting from the UI, that should require a user to mouse over and assign via mouse input + UI Button.
Blender in this type of scenario just needs its developer base to understand âoptions, flexibility and easeâ vs âIs it the Blender way (and this being, is this how the community uses it)â
Welcome to the future. What took you so long?
and really why is that? I didnât follow the thread, so no need to answer if itâs too much hassle. Will try to catch up in the future. 
Sticky keys functionality was almost there Blender Archive - developer.blender.org
Iâm still wondering why this patch never landed. 
And yo @mano-wii since youâre dealing with lots of transform stuff, may I ask when will you add transform modeling functionality to the gizmos? Blender is the only 3d app without it at this point.
It is useful for when needing to move stuff inside tight places where you can not see the places you want to pick the stuff up and drop them at the same time.
For example moving stuff form one room inside a building to another room, moving stuff inside a tunnel system or inside veins and stuff like that.
Sometimes It would be really useful if you could toggle walk mode while grabbing something.
I also thought about that.
However, in most cases, navigating when transformation is indeed avoidable.
If you deactivate the hotkey for 3D View / Set Tool by Name, then selection mode will only change via mouse input on the side toolbar.
Honestly, I have no issues with the hotkey being active, I as rarely touch the hotkey.
Totk Ultrahand!
20 char
This is one of those âBlenderâ things that I very much dislike about its double-edged approach to features and how the developers incorporate things. I can understand the use case if by âindividual preferenceâ. But coming from Autodesk/Alias and other DCC applications, not to mention Photoshop of all of them. Thereâs no logical explanation to make a cycling hotkey a default function for selections when its entire function is to be standardized by a user.
W as a hotkey would be well suited for âSoft Selectionâ or in blenderâs words âProportional Editingâ. This hotkey would at least not require a user to move their hand across the keyboard, but would be able to rest their hand in one location with quick activate/deactivation. Same goes for Shift+W for the pie menu.
âFalloff Selectionâ as a name would be much better suited & I doubt anyone would counter this.
Thank you for the tip for disabling this BTW.
This is honestly one of those things that comes down to user preference.
C4D has a hotkey that changes a translation from being in world vs local space⌠click to go back and forth. Itâs a nice feature.
Photoshop - honestly, I have wished for years that pressing M would cycle between rectangular and oval selection mode in Photoshop. The number of times Iâve started to drag a selection - NO, I DONT WANT A CIRCLE - press M, nothing happens. Great, another trip to the toolbar⌠click, find the other button in the dropdown, clickâŚ
As far as I understand, this is because setting the basepoint is part of the modal keymap of the transform operator, and it requires clicking, and when you use gizmos youâre holding the click already. I think Hans suggested that a new tool is introduced, one that supports setting the basepoint.
From the description
Currently this depends on key repeat detection which isnât supported on macOS.
PS actually does that, but it uses Shift modifier key to cycle through tools with the same hotkey assigned (if you press M, you enter box selectionâŚif you press Shift-M, you then toggle between that and oval selection by default, or whatever else you may have assigned to M in the tools palette). Hope it helps (sorry about the off-topicness of my reply)
All these years, TIL. Thank you!
The selection tool cycling on W key is taken from industry standards software (this way it works in 3dsmax, for example).
It was implemented because some people familiar with this method asked for that. It has never been supposed to be perfect due to predictable overshooting known since 3dsmax implementation.
Blenderâs solution is direct hotkeys - B for box, C for circle and Ctrl+RMB for lasso to support heavy alternation (in box - circle - box - lasso - circle - box way) and carving complex selections.
It is not clear which way this topic is related to snapping and precision modeling.