I agree its an issue that in spite of the improvement, slows down your workflow. Before it was just a number. Now the name is there, but if it’s a very long name, it’s abbreviated therefore more mouse use.
But there are literally hundreds of issues like this. Whether or not it’s “fundamental” is most likely dependent on the user. There are many different Cubase users groups, and ranking of what is most important among the groups greatly varies.
Just the other day someone pointed out the scroll problem when opening the Edit History Window with executed functions already there. This means you not only have to mouse-over, but move the scroll wheel to see the latest functions to undo.
Who is to say your issue of Automation Names is more or less important than this Edit History issue?
With that said, it’s the developers burden to rank these issues, most likely based on their own data of different types of Cubase users. Then, rank the cost of how difficult the remedy will be. Some very seemingly simple fixes, even a small GUI issue, is actually very difficult to fix, and part of this is because of code built on older code.
Why new features and new factory plugs with so much currently to address? My guess is marketing and new sales. A new Cubase version titled “We didn’t do anything but fix stuff” isn’t unfortunately going to keep Steinberg in business.
Happy 4th of July!