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Visual editing of layer.xml could be simpler and much more useful if more context- and node-specific actions are available, e.g. in context menu. A couple of examples: 1) Under "Actions" subnodes a "New Action" action should be present allowing to run New Action Wizard 2) Similarly under "Windows2", "Loaders", "OptionsDialog" corresponding wizards could be run 3) Under "Menu" and "Toolbars" not only New Action Wizard could be run (with pre-filled position in the menu or toolbar) but also adding existing action to the menu/toolbar should be offered - it is rather common action and really clumsy to do by hand 4) "New Empty File" action should be enabled only when it does something useful. Now it usually creates bogus file that doesn't do anything useful. 5) Drag & drop among different folders should a) be enabled only when it does something useful b) provide expected functionality, e.g. I'd expect to be able to drag an action from "Actions" folder into menu bar or toolbar to create a shadow file for the action there. Now it creates a bogus file.
#1, #2, #3a would be easy to do, but add little value; would just be an alternate way to invoke the New File wizards. #3b could be implemented, though I am not sure how often people actually need to do this. Probably most often in platform apps rather than in IDE extension modules. For that there should really be some kind of proper GUI layout editor at a higher level than layer manipulations, I think. See for example issue #70884. For #4 and #5 please see issue #72541.
#3b Exactly. I came to NetBeans Platform from application programming side and from this point of view the workflow on GUI is a bit twisted now - I'd like to edit menu bar, toolbars, shortcuts and window layout as a whole, not by modules. If issue #70884 proposes full-fledged GUI editor (where edited menus look like menus, etc.) I vote for it. However editing layer in context IMHO already does most of the job - save for the features I listed above and window layout editor - GUI editor would just add bells and whistles to it. #1, #2, #3a The same as for #3b applies - from my point of view it is just as natural to add new action etc. from layer editor, e.g. for developer switching from MSVC++ this is the usual way of doing it. Besides, using your reasoning, one could argue that we don't need toolbars, shortcuts and half of context menus at all, as those are just alternate ways to using the menu bar :).
Obviously support for NB app creation is far less mature than for creating plain Swing apps, and it probably always will be, even if there were someone to work on improving it (currently no one does). It is also much harder to support reasonably due to the large set of messy considerations imposed on us by historical compatibility concerns - there is no consistency to speak of.