In the spirit of node sculpting debate, I felt free to say something about Inkscape's UI in general. :) Just my observations (from user's perspective).
1) I would make Freehand drawing tool an option of Pen tool.
Pen tool - Bezier curves and straight line (default) - Freehand drawing (top toolbar option and configurable auto-turning-on option when "stylus" or "eraser" input device is enabled and Pen tool selected)
For about year and a half of using Inkscape this tool has been picked only 10-20 times. :)
2) Rename Star and polygon tool to Figure tool(?)
Figure tool - Polygon - Star (- Comic book balloon - will be requested more of these in the future, I'm sure...)
3) On canvas gradient tool
- if object has no gradient fill/stroke - should be able to detect if selected object has fill or stroke activated and edit existing one. In case of both activated do top toolbar selected editing. Current default adds unnecessary fill/stroke to an object.
4) Selector tool
First LMB click - Scale Second LMB click - Rotation/skew Third LMB click - Perspective
I see all of these as overall object editings. This way perspective should be relatively easy to find, I think. First thing I do when I try new graphic application is to click on some object few times to see if something's happening. Don't know about others...
5) Snap to...
Would like to see snapping options in that top toolbar always easy accessible. Tools that will benefit: Node, Rectangle, Circle, Shape, Spiral, Pen, Bezier, Text and Gradient.
Again, all written here are my aloud thinkings. I don't expect positive feedback on any but would like to hear comments. I think that adding more tools in toolbox will just make things worse and will clutter the desktop. And that's already happening.
Cheers, Vlada