How to set settings to do 'right' thing by default, than default to 'wrong things...?

Question

(How vague a title can i come up wth)...
Well it could apply to more than one situation, which is why I left it a bit(!) open...
Specifically, I find one of the reasons my current file has grown from a 60MB file to a 2.5GB file, is my use of gradients and fills in shapes.  By default, when I create a layer,
I press control-N, then draw a shape, bind the vector to the layer, then fill it with a gradient.  Trouble is, they aren't 'gradient layers', they are gradients ON layers...and there
doesn't seem to be any easy way to convert from one to the other...
And why would I care?  ... well my picture is 4.5Kpx^2, if it is a gradient on a layer, then it's a 80MB/layer image of a gradient.  (OUCH), vs. a gradient layer, that is just
a formula with the gradient. (<1K,). Compressed they seem to take around 20MB on disk...so, from that, you can see I've added about 120 of those layers to the file.... each
layer, a small faction of the orignal image, yet taking almost as much as the original!...
So it would be convenient if when I create a layer, it could do the right thing to begin with.  Problem is -- when I hve tried to create a gradient layer, the program doesn't let me create the gradient -- I can only use a predefined gradient.   Which is awkward to say the least!...
So this is related to the same problem I'm trying to find a work-around for (though it would addresss other simlar problems in the various other tools)...
If I had the control when creating the gradient for it to take it's rotation from the line I drew...  As long as I am only drawing gradients, it can copy the formula and direction of each and apply/store them as the layer's 'gradient' forumula...?

Answer 1

That is what I do.
But I'd want it to create the gradient layer, blank to begin with.  My process wasn't aligned with the requirements...but I usually like to go delete the layer mask 1st, and then I need to make sure the newly created gradient layer is below the old layer so I can pick off the colors from the old layer.   then I can go back into the gradient fill as you show above to create the gradient.
What is very NOT intuitive,  is DIRECTION on the gradient.   On a normal layer, it's pretty accurate, go from point a to point b. 
But trying to duplicate that accuracy -- the agle from that tiny little circle, , and then trying to find the 'edge of the graident and where it lines up with the layer you see....
All those are trial and error... 
What Horribly threw me off was I was used to working with the canvas rotated for the area I was in....
The rotated canvas isn't integrated into hardly any of the tools -- they all still have their x-y aligned on what is a "skewed sight line" for one looking
at a rotated canvas.
Ideally, the tool coordinates would be relative to the view (or toggleable between absolute and relative as some might prefer the other...)...
But trying to figure out the gradient directly when your canvas is rotated... isn't exactly *obvious*, nor simple.   Doable, yes, but not very easily...