This is a repost of https://developer.blender.org/T70552
As much as working with the modifier stack as much as possible is encouraged, one issue happens with the Subdivision Surface modifier: the modded mesh blocks the base mesh in edit mode, as shown here:
This makes selections of single vertices pretty much impossible, since a selection like this:
Is completely hidden with the modifier activated:
The same happens with edge and face selections:
Switching to X-Ray mode has its own set of issues. Selecting anything precisely is very hard due to the two meshes “overlapping” and you having the added “benefit” of being able to select back faces accidentally due to the extremely minimal visuals that are the same color as everything else when not selected:
Changing from Subdivision Surface to Multiresolution introduces other problems. While there are no issues concerning Edit Mode, you lose the visual feedback if you’re controlling the mesh by editing the weight as only the base mesh is displayed. You also lose the bevel modifier workflow of controlling the weight and your only visual feedback for creasing is the color change from black to purple, which is fine for 0 or 1 scenarios, but not so much if you’re doing small tweaks, as you have to constantly switch between Object and Edit modes to check the changes.
In response to the short answer after archival, it’s a bit vague and, I take that the modifier cage is already visible in all screenshots provided? Also, none of the extra visibility options really help with the issue. The final mesh still blocks the base mesh. Which ends looking like this if you have all of them at once:
With “half x-ray” disabled, you return to the same problem:
And with regular X-Ray is even worse: