In reply to Antony Smith.

This is news. We’ve invested some significant time into our own storefront based child theme however if it’s now in maintenance mode there’s a worry it’s going to get dropped/superceeded. Is that the case?

To be clear, when I say Storefront is in maintenance mode, it doesn't mean we aren't working on it (or that it's "dead"). We are still giving it attention and have actually increased the frequency of our releases of it (we're aligning to the same release schedule of WooCommerce core). We also have active attention being given to the child themes and powerpack.

My comment was just intended to indicate that we're not actively doing new feature development on Storefront because of the shift happening with themes in general in the WordPress ecosystem, and like most other folks involved with themes, we're experimenting and evaluating how that will impact theming in WooCommerce in the future.

With regards to your other feedback, I really thank you for taking the time to write it. As I mentioned in my earlier comment, we do read this feedback and it is considered.