(In reply to comment #13)
> We've been kicking around the section editing behavior a fair bit, and we
> recognize the need for more flexibility, in part because the mouseover
> interface doesn't translate well to touch-based user interfaces. (We also
> recognize that section-editing in VisualEditor overall is still a bit of a
> crutch, but that's a larger discussion.)

The two issues I'm seeing from users are that:

A. some editors are annoyed by the animation, particularly when scrolling or trying to target a specific link with a mouse quickly (or when using a touchscreen device, as you note); and

B. some editors are annoyed by VisualEditor generally and would simply like to disable/hide all traces of it.

> What James and I would like to suggest here is a multi-way pref:
> 
> Section editing links
> (x) Hybrid edit / edit source links [default]
> ( ) Edit sections via VisualEditor
> ( ) Edit sections as wikitext
> ( ) Disable section editing
> 
> The section editing feature is already disable-able, so we could just merge
> the pref.

This proposed solution solves problem A (the animation/hover issue) for the non-default case (not really helpful...), while inhibiting users who want both links but without any animation/hover. Not great. For problem B, it mitigates the impact of VisualEditor slightly (though users are still left with two tabs at the top of the page and probably slower load times as a result of VisualEditor).

> If folks think that's too much, we could just have a single
> 
> [ ] Support section editing via VisualEditor 
> 
> checkbox as this point, enabled by default, which turns on or off the hybrid
> mode.

This proposed solution doesn't solve problem A (animation/hover) and doesn't solve problem B (VisualEditor being enabled at all).

I'm not sure either proposed (compromise) solution is better than the current situation. However, there's already an existing user preference to disable VisualEditor that was inexplicably removed. It's difficult to tell how many editors are having problem A or are having problem B, but re-adding a user preference to disable VisualEditor would solve problem B for sure and largely solve problem A (for those who find problem A to be a problem...).