I've been trying to force myself to solely use GMS2 for the past month now. The only reason I am doing this is because I am targeting consoles, and with their rapid SDK changes, I will need the continued runtime update support. But if I'm being perfectly honest, I don't feel like I am getting any sort of upgrade in any way. I'm not gaining a single thing that GMS1 didn't already offer me. In return, I had to pay for new license, get used to a new workflow, and spend many, many hours getting 1.4 code to work in GMS2. So a good chunk of money and lots of time for... Well, what?
So far there are around two things I like about GMS2:
1: Code folding
2: Ctrl+T
And then there's dozens of things I absolutely loathe. Here's a few:
1: Can no longer do "Ignore comments" when searching through a project - something I used a lot. Lost functionality. Objectively worse workflow.
2: Search&Replace in code editor is utterly broken and buggy to the point where I'm actually doing this manually. This has actually cost me tangible time. Objectively worse workflow.
3: Can no longer right click a resource and do "Check references" like in GMS1 - again, something I actually frequently used in GMS1. Lost functionality. Objectively worse workflow.
4: Can no longer import multiple resources when choosing "add existing" as in GMS1 - this has also cost me significant time. Lost functionality. Objectively worse workflow.
5: Can no longer quickly delete an instance from room editor by simply holding a modifier key and clicking like in GMS1 - instead you have to actually select one or more instances (by for example holding ctrl and then clickselecting each instance) and then press Delete to delete them - forcing your hand off the mouse. Absolutely horrible for ergonomics and general workflow.
6: Can no longer scroll from cursor position in code editor by doing ctrl+arrow up/down. Have to scroll with mouse or move cursor all the way to top/bottom with arrows. This has actually made me lose focus on several occasions where it would not have in GMS1.
7: Searching to highlight things in documentation (Ctrl+F) is horrible; even if there are results they won't be highlighted because they're hidden away in folds, and there is no "expand all" feature. I can look up things in GMS1 docs much, much faster. Objectively worse workflow.
8: Default skin has absolutely zero contrast - select a resource in the resource tree and press F2 for renaming to see what I mean. I literally can't see whether the text is highlighted unless I squint really close to the screen. Say what you will about the looks of GMS1, but it wasn't hard to tell basic things like this.
9: I hate the way the code editor highlights the currently selected argument. In GMS1 it was the only argument out of all of them that was actually highlighted, with all other arguments being kinda "greyed out". In GMS2, it just highlights every single argument up to and including the cursor position, making it hard to identify the current argument at a quick glanse like it was in GMS1.
10: Code editor no longer displays total line numbers in the bottom unless you've actively focused on it. A small but noticeable thing, especially as a heavy multi monitor user - why is this gone from GMS1?
11: The sprite editor... Ugh, this could fill up an entire list all on its own. Things that took 2 seconds in GMS1 now takes 30.
12: The "Find and replace" window in code editor is bolted to a certain position off to the far side and can't be moved, so if your code window is big and zoomed in and you press Ctrl+F it throws you off to the far side where the window spawns. Let me move it and save its position so it spawns close enough to where I'm working without having to throw the camera!
And these are just some of the things I've remembered to write down. These are things that are bothering me on a daily basis, to a point where GMS1 was objectively better in at least these areas. The worst part is, I'm not feeling like this is an upgrade in any way. The only thing I'd truly miss by going back to GMS1 is code folding. I don't have a choice, obviously, because I need runtime update support for consoles, mobiles etc.. And the money is not an issue, I want to support continued development, and the last time I gave YoYo big money before buying GMS2 was way back in 2011, so that's fair. But... As a consumer, other than the continued support, I really don't feel like there is a single thing that is better or that GMS1 didn't already give me. I'm really, really trying to look here, but... Eh. A little disappointed, to be honest.
In the end, I feel that all I've really bought is continued support for external platforms. In that case, I would have actually preferred an option to pay to continue using GMS1 with nothing but platform support.