I have been wanting to give my feedback on this for a few weeks now.
No matter how I try to adjust my GM UI navigation, I always default to this since it is simply easier for me:
Look through resource tree and click on a new resource to edit.
Done Editing
Look through resource tree and click on a new resource to edit.
Done Editing
Etc
and then occasionally right click and close all windows because the workspace gets cluttered. I never navigate through workspaces.
ctrl+shift+f and typing into the resource tree's search bar is the only shortcuts I use into finding resources. I find Quick Access to be not useful at all and I know this can be turned off in the preferences.
So for me, workspaces and chains get in the way. I know there are key commands and stuff like that to navigate, but these never stuck with me as it was never useful to me. Multiple code tabs never stuck with me either even though I tried to incorporate it into my workflow. I find going through the resource tree to be much better in finding what I am looking for. I try to keep my resource tree super clean so I can easily find things.
I never used GMS1 too much, but I know that using that kind of workflow can get cluttered and unorganized fast, because whenever I would watch someone code on youtube when I was new to GM it was a bit difficult to keep up to know what they were doing because windows would be on top of windows. GMS2 solved this unorganization with chains and non stacking windows, but still, I still don't like chains/workspaces.
Removing workspaces and chains, and then when you click on a resource it would automatically go to code and events editor would be the most ideal workflow for me. Having the Recent Windows only displaying resources and not events/etc, would be much better in my opinion. It gets cluttered fast with events from the same object and you really don't need this to keep track of what events you were on.
I was excited for the inspector, but currently not anymore. I don't see myself using it unless it gets improved, but it has a few more updates so we will see. It seems like a good idea, in that you could select a bunch of resources and then be able to edit them one at a time from a list.
I am looking forward to the new UI workflow this year, and hopefully I will like it. I hear it is more of a edit one thing at a time sort of workflow which is my style.