It all depends on the user, and what the personal preferences are. Personally, I can’t stand using the transform widgets. I absolutely do not like them, in any 3d software. I’m so happy with the g, s, and r shortcuts… They made my life so much better… xD
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Because transform widgets are ugly, outdated and are completely counter to the hotkey based workflow that makes Blender such a powerful modeling tool.
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couldn’t disagree more, using hotkeys to move items is a pain in the arse, its like having hotkeys to move a paint brush, you loose flow and rhythm to your work…
I have to say though, sculpting , denoising, and the look and feel of 2.8 are a large step forward.
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I am a huge fan of widgets. In Blender, I usually have the feeling that they are not precisely doing what I would expect in the sense of being slightly off. I couldn’t nail it down so far to understand what exactly causes this.
Well, but you do move items with your mouse. You just activate the tools/modes with your left hand. Much quicker than move over to left with your mouse than back to item, move, move back to the tools, back to your object, back to the tools… There are those fun km/miles counters for your mouse. Grab one and see how quickly it climbs.
In the end it really is a personal thing. I for instance have moved to a keyboard only workflow for all of my computing. Blender is the only program I use it for pointing at things. Other graphics programs I use a pen for. Heck, I even browse the internet with vim keys. Don’t underestimate the power of ten fingers and a keyboard.
Transform widgets are a nice option to have and they also simplify certain transform actions like transforming with just two axes instead of just one or three at a time. I like to mix shortcuts and tools together to do certain operations faster. For instance when I want to keep the model strictly in the middle of the symmetrical x-axis I can freely transform the y and z-axes at the same time by freehand. Pretty convenient. 
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Basically that’s where I would look at. Also 2.81 might be more stable than 2.80.
There’s a regression in edit mode performance, subdivision and undo. Also multires is broken, but everything else is more performant.
Also I’ve collected some pie menus and addons that make my workflow much faster than it was in 2.79.
To name a few, wazou’s pie menus, Modifier list, and some of Heavypoly’s pie menus from his cutom config paired with some pie menu addon that comes packed with blender. On top of that I’ve modified some shorcut for them as well so it would be hard to share my config.
G, Shift+X, done
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As opposed to “just click and drag the plane”? I don’t think g, shift+x is a good argument Also, what if it’s not X? What if you don’t exactly know which axis you need (i.e. custom/normal orientation). Gizmos have their use, and done right they can be quite powerful. They just aren’t done right in Blender (hopefully, that’s a “yet”).
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I guess it depends on the type of modelling you do, there no way using the keyboard to model the things I make would be faster and more efficient. I do use hot keys for lots of other things, but never if I need two hands to do it. The current widget is slightly worse than the one in 2.79, as its hard to constrain to an axis if needed. You need to select it very accurately. I use g to grab stuff and is okay , but it hard to move things along or near an axis, or to see which direction you are going. If you constrain to axis its too rigid, you just loose flow. Its okay if you know where you are going, but I lie to adjust verbs according to what I see on screen, not to a predetermined design or layout.
The other thing is that it will be a massive turn off for casual and new users. Having no obvious way of moving items when Blender loads is going to cause a lot of people to give up.
Also say hello arthritis in 20 years time guys!
You know it’s not just modeling that uses Widgets right? also having to type G->X- , G->y, G-Z …etc each time is not as fast as just grabbing the Axis handle.
With muscle memory, it quickly becomes faster than moving mouse pointer from its position to handle position.
And if you are hermetic to that, you can use middle mouse button to choose axis. Same as gizmo’s handles without the need to overlap selection with them.
I think old solutions were great for common transform operators.
But clearly, new gizmos for operators like spin or bisect are an improvement.
We are no more dealing with obscure coordinates of a center of transformation or a cutting plane.
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i don’t think it’s faster really,you’ll also have to confirm the transformation at the end while the Gizmos is just click and drag. to me that feels more natural.
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Muscle memory will not tell you the name of the axis you need in a given arbitrary orientation. And invoking two keystrokes + confirming with a click can never be faster than press and drag when your mouse is already there anyway. When it’s not, maybe. Hotkeys and gizmos are both useful for the things they do, and both have their own limitations. Neither is superior. One of the reasons gizmos aren’t that good for Blender is just that Blender’s gizmos aren’t very good.
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That is not really the way to access the tool which makes the operation fast.
That is the fact that modeler knows what he wants.
If he takes its time to judge if proportions are correct, difference between releasing a button or clicking to validate is negligible. And clicking to validate is more comfortable than holding button pressed while hesitating.
If user knows what he wants and that corresponds to a numerical value, starting on keyboard to continue on keyboard does not seems to be a bad choice.
That is really rare to ignore axis of an orientation.
If you use Normal orientation, it is almost always to call Z axis.
If you create a custom orientation according to an edge, it is also almost only to use Y axis.
Now, in 2.8, they are not very different that the ones used in other software.
Except the Scale gizmo that is a lot harder to use since the addition of an external ring that limits the hotspot to use handles.
I have seen tutorials where the instructor missed so many keystrokes & had to undo them, not all people remember keys position and sometimes you’ll have to look at your keyboard instead of using the Gizmos ,that’s time wasted imo.
But for the continuity of the Action i agree ,that’s why i requested the grab state for the Gizmos so you can either use click drag or single grab for the Axes, making Gizmos behave as modal transforms.
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No, it’s not rare at all. “Almost” always does not equate “always”. In fact, it’s exactly what disrupts the workflow, because it breaks your train of thought when you hit this “almost”. Every time.
They are different. For one, the transform gizmos in “other software” are overloaded. For example, with extrude and/or slide. This is just not something that you even can do in Blender, even with hotkeys. Scale while sliding. Extrude efficiently in an unaligned plane. (e, shift x, e, shift x, woops, the normal is different now, e, shift z…). For two, in “other software” you can keep an axis/plane active regardless of where your gizmo is. Or what your view is. Which can be approximated with Blender’s aligned views, though not always.
Have you tried the other gizmos though? Spin and bisect are outright buggy.
Again, one is not superior to the other (hotkeys and gizmos). They’re all tools, to be used for the task at hand.
That is an exaggeration. It happens to anybody to be distracted by something or to be tired.
But somebody comfortable without gizmos will not accumulate a ton of frustration if he press Z instead of Y.
When you do that : you don’t validate the action. Blender displays the axis when constraint was activated.
So, you just make the correction and continue.
But if you made a mistake, you will not remake it just at following action.
And if you feel tired, you display a gizmo just to show the axis. It is not because gizmo is visible that you will use it if you prefer to use keys.
I do that if I create a custom orientation based on a selection of multiple elements.
But when I create a custom orientation, I have in mind in what direction I want to use it.
So, if there may be an hesitation at its creation, there is none after.
I am talking about what I experienced. When you are used to keys, it is rare to be annoyed by them.
But I agree that may not be the case for people who did not get used to it.
I was just talking about Move, Rotate, Scale. Gizmos that were existing in 2.7.
But honestly, I was only thinking about plane handles addition in 2.8. I forgot how they were working in 2.4.
Spin does not seem buggy, here. His behavior is not obvious to understand. Some part of it refers to current action and little + are referring to future action. But it makes it powerful.
Bisect is buggy, here. It disappears after moving the cut plane.
But existence of a gizmo for that operation is an improvement compared to 2.79 where there is simply no gizmo at all. I deplore the fact that gizmo is not working but its design satisfies me.
2.80 is the first release with more than 3 gizmos. It is planned to add more and more and improve them during the whole 2.8 series.
That is normal that Blender did not reach same level than other software in this field.
But for people who were used to work without them, that situation should not represent an obstacle.
We can continue to ignore them.
I’m not suggesting annoyance with keys. My whole point is that both keys and gizmos have their uses, and it’s simply not useful to try and find a “winner”. I mean, it’s exactly what I do as well: show the gizmo when axes are arbitrary. But then, the gizmo is already there, might as well make use of it!
Yes, but you also said they weren’t different to other software, now in 2.8. They are. They’re less useful than in other software, that’s for sure, which is why people often advise to stick to hotkeys.