Justin! Always a pleasure to see your thoughts. As someone mentioned above, I very much echo that your articles are always pleasant and useful.

I became frustrated after the template navigation was removed from the site editor. So, I simply threw in the towel.

Always appreciate the candor and, for what it’s worth, would have welcomed a post about it then. As you likely saw play out in GitHub, this was a very tough and tricky call to make but feedback often helps give great context to make decisions.

Calls for using the TT1 Blocks theme are also demotivating. I have become burned out testing it and hope to never see it again.

You and me both at this point :D Expect TT2 going forward for future calls for testing. My hope is actually to have folks go straight to the Theme Directory and pick any block theme to test from in the long run. For now though, both TT1 and TT2 have needed the feedback.

I started by removing the Page List block from the Navigation menu in the header. I have 90+ pages on my install, and it is always irritating when themes list them all by default. There also does not seem to be a way to limit that to top-level pages or a max number.

Great call out. Opened an issue here to cover this piece of feedback: https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/37340

There was no way to edit the colors or typography of the input field. It would also be nice to have a search text input that expanded or popped up when clicking the search icon.

Agreed! Thankfully, there’s an issue open for this already. I’ve commented there to make sure your ideas (and interest) are captured though: https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/22071

The biggest issue I hit was with the Group block. By default, the Twenty Twenty-Two theme adds an 8rem (that’s pretty big) bottom margin to one of the Groups within the header area.

Excellent call out once more. There’s an issue open for this as well but I’ve added your feedback to it in case it helps create more momentum to address this: https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/36797 I too have run into issues with this in my testing from time to time. Of note for any themers, themes can opt out of Block Gap styles: https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/34491

I took it a step further by adding padding and background color, essentially creating a two-color border.

I dig this effect :) As for your note about being able to add borders to Images directly, I’ve noted it on this previous issue on the same topic: https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/21540#issuecomment-993032825

This very much feels like where the state of the block and site editing is overall. Many pieces are exceptional, but after digging beneath the surface, you find that you need workarounds for some essential design needs.

Expect to see this quoted in the summary post. I super appreciate these high level thoughts and takes as someone who is often very deep in the experience itself. Feels very apt and part of what we have to look forward to in future releases. I have to keep reminding myself that this is just a V1 despite my impatience and excitement.

During testing, I ran into a few features I would like to have, such as a word-count limit for the Post Excerpt block and a button-style design for the “more link.”

Heh as expected both are noted already: https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/34757 & https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/33288

I tried to transform one of the outer Group blocks into a Cover to give it a background. It wiped everything in the header area clean, and the “undo” button did not seem to work. I just started over.

Whoa! I could replicate this and have opened an issue: https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/37342 There are two recent PRs that might be related to resolving this but, to be safe, I’ve reported.

Thanks once more for going through this test, reporting back, and encouraging others to do the same through your actions (and not just your words!).