Feature request: make the "transform" dialogs non-modal

Question

Currently, the transformation dialogs accessible at Object>Transform are modal. I'm talking about "Move…", "Rotate…", "Reflect…", and so forth. These dialogs, when open, lock the user out of any interaction with the artboard other than the "preview" button, until the dialog is closed.
Even more problematically, they lock the scroll and zoom factor of the current user view, so that there's no way to inspect how a precise numeric adjustment affects a part of the layout outside the current window (or within the current window but very small inside it) without committing the change, inspecting it, and then later undoing if necessary. This creates cycles of tedious user adjustments (especially on small monitors) that really should be possible in one user step, by toggling the preview button on and off, and zooming/scrolling.
This is contrary to most modern UI design principles, which suggest avoiding modes unless they are truly and meaningfully necessary. I don't think this is one of those cases. Photoshop made dialogs for adjustment layers non-modal with CS4, and while there are issues with the newer interface (see John Nack's Configurator workaround), I think it's a win overall. Illustrator needs to catch up in this regard. I realize there is some pretty serious refactoring involved to do this, but it has to be do-able.
In the words of Larry Tesler's immortal Subaru license plate: "NO MODES"!

Answer 1

...make the "transform" dialogs non-modal...
What, and bring Illustrator out of the 1980s?! Are you mad, man?
Just so you know you're not alone; I've been complaining about AI's archaic dependency upon modal dialogs for many years.
...I'm fully aware of the Transform panel...observing that there's another way to do it...doesn't really address any of my points here...
But it's not "another way to do it," because the functionality is not the same. The modal dialogs include crucial functionality that cannot be done in the Transform palette. For example, moving something in terms of distance and direction (diagonally), instead of merely by lame X and Y factors. Or transforming about an off-object center of transformation, rather than merely by the 9-point proxy.
...the "preview" isn't updated on keyboard entry, and the "preview" checkbox need to be manually toggled on and off...
But the preview does refresh (and does not have to be toggled) in response to keyboard entry if that keyboard entry is by the arrow keys. For example: Select something, doubleClick the Scale tool, click your cursor in the Uniform value field, and tap the up/down arrow keys (or press and hold them). The value will increment and the preview will update with each key tap. (Be sure to teach that to your students.)
That does not, of course, negate the complaint, but it does ameleorate it somewhat. The increments are preset; there are no preference settings for them. (Don't even get me started on preferences that should be doc-specific settings, and vice-versa).
Nor does the valid point that problematic dialogs abound beyond just those associated with the transform tools, but I do agree with it. For just one of many examples, it's nothing short of idiotic that the Scale fields of Transform Each do not have a uniform scaling lock, and that only percentage fields are provided and no explicit dimension fields. Illustrator is quite saturated with such inconsistencies and half-baked implementations.
But...you're often arguing with the emotionally attached Illustrator devoted here. So I wouldn't recommend holding your breath. It would probably be more effective teaching Illustrator's shortcomings to your beginning students. Probably one of the easiest ways to explain the problem of modal dialogs is to point out that you can't change the current selection with the dialog open.
JET