Is anyone using the Layout feature?

There are some ups and downs to the Layout feature in assemblies (not the generic layout sketch, the Layout feature with a toolbar button and all).

good stuff:

  • can move parts
  • make parts right from sketch
  • avoid circular relations

bad stuff:

  • uses 3d sketch with all of the limitations and difficulties of 3d sketches
  • sketch relations seem to turn into mates (?!?!?!?)
  • editing it is not exactly straight forward
  • requires the use of blocks to get all of the functionality
  • fully defined 3d sketch made into blocks is extremely unstable
  • part creation from block is not very time saving
  • cannot copy/paste from 2d sketch to plane in Layout
  • cannot use Autodimension

I feel like there must be something I'm missing here. Has anyone had a positive experience with this feature? Can someone from SolidWorks go beyond the Help and explain what the vision for this feature was/is?

SolidworksAssemblies