Good explanation and +1 for the proposals.
I too rely on the last used style.
What probably confuses newbies is not the last used style mechanism, but not being able to see (and easily change) it whilst having the _common_ habit of setting the style _before_ drawing so to immediately see how the object will be while drawing it. I've always found the "first draw (or write) then set the style" workflow a bit contorted but the only choice was to accept it and get used to (and that's not the only case of Inkscape's oddness).
I find the each-tool-fixed-style useful only for some tools like text and calligraphy, and I assume that this (useful) option has been extended indiscriminately to all tools singularly but this was probably an oversight or a levity because there's no real reason to make differences between geometrical tools. This can be easily "fixed" setting all the geometrical tools to use the last used style, but this still remains an oddity that may confuse first users.
Luca
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