[polyfractal]

PG has stated that it is done this way because it was easiest/fastest/most elegant way to do it from a programming point of view. He acknowledges that it is not very efficient or enjoyable from a user's point of view.

It's also been like this for years, so presumably PG doesn't care enough about the usability to change it.

This type of thread comes up every month or two, someone explains how/why it happens and then we go back to having the same, broken interface. I doubt it will ever be fixed.