Wowzers, I didn’t realize adding pressure sensitivity would be such a controversial idea among artists! Lol jk, everyone has a different way of working!
To me, it’s pretty simple though, having it read pressure doesn’t stop you from using it in the old way. But it does change the default. Now You have to change which brush you use, to one that doesn’t use pressure. And I think that’s actually a big an improvement- It’s exactly the same process you would do with freehand mode. In my opinion the modes should work as similarly as possible- it is more intuitive and clear. If switching off pressure sensitivity is a thing that is a common pain, then I would say that should be addressed as a separate issue. Pretty sure photoshop has a button to toggle it globally without digging into brush settings.
Regarding your thoughts on the validity of straight lines for hatching- it may be true that you don’t see the use of it on your work, but as I said it’s something that is very important in mine, which is equally valid. And many artists use this technique, hatching with straight lines is very common. Often, I don’t use it for an entire image (although I have), but only for certain areas, and combine it with other hatching techniques. I shared pieces done in traditional media to show and highlight the effect, because it’s less common in digital work- in large part due to the lack of tools like this. And yes you can do hatching with freehand mode- and I do- but line mode hatching gives a different and very useful effect that is a fantastic addition to other drawing techniques and hatching styles. (Another great use case is speed lines, or anime style background flare effects!)
With these changes, using it with or without pressure is now an available choice, instead of there only being one way. This enables entire new ways to work. And the default behavior is now more in line with freehand mode. The question now is- how simple and efficient is it to work either way.
I’m pretty sure that live preview on all the drawing modes is something that will universally be appreciated- once it’s super responsive. I could see an option for toggling pressure sensitivity being a good solution for making it easier to work either way. I’d personally opt for that to be a global toggle that could potentially go in the top bar or quick menu rather than a setting per drawing mode, since I can only imagine that adding unnecessary complexity to the ui. A nice thing about doing it that way is that you could still use favorites to save a preset brush that enables or disables pressure sensitivity and also sets the drawing mode together.
I’m not trying to get features subtracted here- my suggestions for changes do not remove the ability to work as before- they are motivated by the desire to enable new abilities and make things more consistent and intuitive. I’m not sure I understand the reasoning behind arguing for subtracting this feature which has pretty clear benefits, and is useful to at least one artist (me) as I have previously explained, and likely many others. And this feature isn’t just a win for hatching technique- I think that this change is a great step towards making the drawing modes all act in a more similar way, which is a better default. I’d argue that it makes it easier to understand how the tool will work, and that the fact the other apps lack this feature just makes it more valuable here. It enables a more diverse way of working. And there are ways to make toggling pressure sensitivity intuitive and simpler, if that is indeed a common issue.