Hello Cy, and welcome to etresoft Land!
I'd like to take a moment to explain how things work here:
1. You, as a professional with a thorough knowledge of exactly how your workflow operates, post an intelligent account of how the changes in Lion have completely disrupted that workflow.
2. etrosoft, in spite of his complete ignorance of your particular workflow, posts a reply that says this disruption is not Apple's fault — it's YOUR fault because you're using the wrong tool for the job. This despite the fact that you've made it clear that this tool has worked perfectly well for your purposes, as you know from years of on-the-job experience.
3. In the process of this post, he further insults you by stating that the very nature of your post was wrong, and you never should have made it here. You see, the only posts acceptable in etresoft land are those that say "Lion is great, and anyone who doesn't like the wholesale changes it has made is 'living in the past.'"
4. You post an eloquent reply that demostrates what a fool etresoft has made of himself.
5. etresoft either...
a. Goes right on with his same old shtik, oblivious to how foolish his is and has been throughout the course of this thread, or,
b. Ignores what you've written completely and crawls back into his hole until the next opportunity to embarrass himself comes along.
A check back over the last few months of this thread should be enough to convince you of the accuracy of this description.
Your posts are welcome here. Your commentary is exactly the kind of real-world experiences that are needed to demonstrate the truth of your statement that these new operating paradigms have just not been thought through.
The simple solution, which I've put forth repeatedly here (and which etresoft has repeatedly ignored because it's just too logical to work in etresoft Land), is for Auto Save and versioning to be the default in Lion, but capable of being disabled by experienced users who choose to do so.
Thanks again for your informative posts.