[lvncelot]

This is what I've been wondering here, as well. So far, the downsides (Change to an almost subconscious muscle-memory-task, added friction) of this are pretty apparent - what even are the upsides of this?

[vcg3rd]

I use Emacs, mostly for Org Mode, but not registers. I also understand perfectly the problem, and I also can't understand the upside.

The only clue I see is in the polite objection the author quotes who writes "I agree it's safer..."

But I don't understand safer in what way or why 1 person gets to decide safer=better=forced.

[rjzzleep]

Attracting new users for with the old behaviour is too complex maybe?

[dromtrund]

Isn't named registers an advanced enough feature that it shouldn't be optimized for new users?

[samus]

The new behavior doesn't make me want to invest effort in learning registers. A notification in the status bar which register just got filled would be all I want.

[mahkoh]

I believe Mozilla has been successful with a similar strategy.