I work with Illustrator on a daily basis. Drawing everything with the pen tool is about as effective as opening up a 300dpi canvas in Photoshop and placing every pixel by hand with the pencil tool. There’s a bunch of tools for creating and editing paths at a higher level than thinking about every control point, just as Photoshop has a bunch of tools for creating and editing huge numbers of pixels in very complex ways.
It is useful for me to know how to think about individual control points, but it is rare for me to need to do this.
Things have probably improved, and/or dedicated vector apps have better options I haven’t invested time it. Learning curves abound…
I did this in Photoshop so I could improve my selections and make them smooth. This was also back around 2006 if I had to guess. At the time, when I looked up what to do, all I found was learning how to use the control points, so that’s what I did.
What would be a keyword to look for to find the more modern way, if I’m not looking to go down a rabbit hole or learning all the possible options to find those bits?
It is useful for me to know how to think about individual control points, but it is rare for me to need to do this.