We have to work with a strange legacy dichotomy when making a selection in Layers is NOT equal to making a selection on canvas and vice versa.

No other vector application does it like this:
XD, Affinity Designer, Corel Draw, Figma, Xara, Inkscape...

Other apps which have layered structures don’t do this also:
Photoshop, Blender, 3DS Max...

InDesign and Illustrator are lonely black sheep in the flock of apps.

We need a mode (as an option) to be able to sync both selection methods.
Clicking an object on canvas should highlight the name of it in Layers.
Clicking a name of an object in Layers should select this object on canvas.

Extended reading:

These two selections are like the dark matter and the normal matter — they don’t influence each other and can’t be converted into one another.
Here is the request about it: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/32505679

When an object is selected on canvas, Layers does not get expanded to display it, and we have to click the tiny button to see it in the document structure.
Here is the request about it: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/39104935

Yeah, we can wrap it an an action and spend a precious F-keys to robotically press it after each selection, which is twice dumb, because an action which has only one operation in it is a bad action. Every command in Illustrator should be assignable to a hotkey.
Here is the request about it: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/31609237

And also we have three places to click in Layers to select an object:
1. Names, largest and most easy to click areas — clicking does nothing to select objects though
2. Target buttons, small circles, which are in fact just indicators for the custom appearance applied — clicking them both targets and selects an object, all their children (except locked and hidden), and it’s the only way to select objects on canvas via the panel. Also it support selecting ranges with Shift held — after we begged for it for 3 years (here is the request about it: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests/suggestions/19196674-select-more-than-one-layer-at-once).
3. Selection markers, which are indicators too, but again can be used as buttons... but without the ability to select ranges with Shift. In fact, Shift here works as Ctrl/Cmd should, and Ctrl/Cmd does nothing. I have no hypothesis why. Markers can be displayed as small and large, meaning partial (some children are selected) and full selection (all children selected).

You can read about these columns here: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/illustrator/using/layers.html
Note that this article says nothing about the dichotomy.

Finally, I can see why the current approach can be useful. This allows us to put some objects in an existing group, to reorder, to move to another layer, to switch visibility or lock in mass — via a stupid dialog... without messing up with what is selected on canvas.

Is it worth the hustle though? This can be done with a context menu for Layers panel (here is the request about it: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests/suggestions/31956982-contextual-menu-with-layers-palette-same-as-phot) with 'Lock selection', 'Hide selection', 'Isolate selection' (for objects from different groups, here is the request about it: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests/suggestions/31540384-isolate-selected-objects-without-having-to-group-t), Copy, Group/Ungroup, etc.

I do a lot of repetitive artwork when designing things for laser cutters where I could really benefit from actions. I have a ton of them set up for photoshop which can turn a 5 minute process into a 5 second one because when you select a layer or part, photoshop writes that you selected "layer 0" or whatever the name is. Illustrator is not the same way. If I have 8 layers and they are all named 1 - 8 and I select artwork from layer 1, copy it, select layer 8, and paste in place I can do that all manually. But if I tried to do an action I can't because illustrator does not recognize the user selecting a layer. Regardless of the artwork I'm working on, my layer names and orders are the same, the colors are the same, etc. The only difference is the text placement, shapes of paths, etc.

It would be really helpful if Illustrator made layer selections actionable.

How can I select a shape/object without a fill just by clicking on its surface?
I don't want to click on the stroke, since that's slower and less practical than clicking on the middle of the shape, I don't want to click on layers nor any slower way to do it.

If what I want is not possible, then that would be a very clear sign that Adobe is very, VERY stubborn against selecting by clicking on the middle of the shapes, for no reason at all, since there's no problem in putting an option for it on the settings window.

Don't get me wrong, I love a few things on Illustrator, like the Hand tool working by holding its key or the Ctrl, Shift, and Alt tool modificators/changers, I love these things, but I just can't be selecting shapes by using unnecessararily complicated ways.

Count objects when using Select-->Same, Select-->Object, and "Start editing similar shapes together" commands. Sometimes "Start editing similar shapes together" does not select all similar shapes; therefore, an edit made using this feature may not edit all similar shapes, unbeknownst to the user. However, if I know how many shapes I have, then I can confirm that all shapes are selected when using these commands throughout the editing process. This is valuable because confirming the count of selections builds confidence that edits are made to all objects. Likewise, it also saves the editor time by mitigating the need to count all selected objects manually to ensure that all objects are selected.

When using the Select Same feature we need a lot more options, like all objects with the same transparency effect AND opacity AND tint AND line weight etc, that can be selected from a list of attributes. Same sort of list as the options list for the Eyedropper Tool (see screenshot).

It should be split into sections that allow vectors graphics selections as above, but also things like selecting all linked items that are the same file AND the same size AND rotation AND opacity.

Selecting all text in a certain colour, font, size, style so they can be updated en masse would help too (overlapping with another suggestion here).

You can then tick as many as you like before performing the select using your chosen filters. A preview mode would be useful too, so you can see what you're picking up.

Once set, selected filters should be saveable and accessable from a scrollable list alongside the filter window for instant selection without opening a save / load screen.

Finally, each select same filter window should have an option to add / subtract from the current selection, so selctions can be stacked / refined.

This would be a huge time-saver when updating many files with similar changes whether to update embedded elements, for corporate image updates or technical changes like minimum line thickness.