First, is there a tool in Blender that I can use to draw a line and then tell that line to become vertecies that I can extrude from or something?
Second, does Blender have a tool like to Hexagon’s ‘soft-select’?
No tool for line drawing. You can use plane and then delete its 3 sides.
This line can be extruded too
Describe in detail what are you trying to do
you can use a curve and ctrl click new verts to extend the line. you can lock it so its not really a curve too I think. hit “convert to mesh” then extrude at will.
people use it to trace logos / maps etc