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Automatic layout systems can constrain your thinking. Especially early on, you want to be able to tweak things and try lots of different options. Once something is in the automatic layout system, it's easier to explore the space of options the system can handle. But making even a small change outside that space is much harder.

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Totally disagree. Being able to adjust flow direction, padding, etc. and then perpetuate those changes across multiple elements makes me more likely to experiment.

Also, I'm not necessarily referring to setting up complex constraints and rules, but more just not having to move a bunch of stuff around with the mouse every time I make a change.

Being able to adjust flow direction, padding, etc. and then perpetuate those changes across multiple elements makes me more likely to experiment.

That's exactly my point. It makes you more likely to experiment in that way and less likely to experiment in other ways. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I think it's one reason why designers and design tools don't focus on automatic layout as much.

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