Interesting indeed @Tom Auger.
I'm currently sitting at my Mac which I don't normally use for work, so don't have Illustrator on it. I just installed the latest release (not pre-release/beta) version, loaded it up, drew a shape, selected it, did a Filter > Gaussian Blur, and the Preview checkbox was ON (that was the first time I'd loaded Illustrator), so it looks like it does default to on...at least on my system!

Interestingly, I noticed this behaviour:
Select a shape
Apply a gaussian blur filter
Adjust the amount of blur
Preview is ON, so you can see the blur
Turn Preview OFF
Shape remains blurred
Adjust the amount
Shape remains blurred at the previous amount
...the logical behaviour would be that if the checkbox is clicked OFF, the shape should pop back to completely un-blurred.

P.S. I am also old, and have been using Illustrator off and on since about 1991ish!

Interesting @Paul Roper.

I'm wondering what you consider an "old version" in this case. It has behaved this way since as long as I can remember, but admittedly I've been using Illustrator for over 30 years (OMG) which makes me OLD, and my memory is probably quite leaky.

At any rate, this per-session stickiness doesn't cut it for me.

As I mentioned earlier in this thread (a number of years ago!), the use case for defaulting to OFF was most likely performance related and probably showed up around 5.0 (which was a performance nightmare IIRC). since then of course, our computers have become more performant and with GPU support, "performance" should not win over "usability" anymore.

So my vote is still to go one step further and default to ON.

@Tom Auger: You said:
"7. Observe the checkbox: checked. This has been the behaviour since time immemorial." NOPE! This is exactly what was fixed. Until the latest update, you'd need to click the Preview checkbox EVERY SINGLE TIME you applied some kind of effect/transform. EVERY TIME. The fact that it is now 'sticky' is exactly why everyone wants to be out on the streets having a massive party - except Coronavirus keeps us locked indoors.

If you have an old version of Illustrator, load it up, go through those steps and notice how the checkbox ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS defaults to off, no matter what you did previously. Always. It was never sticky. It's taken ~31 years for them to fix this bug.

This is STILL NOT FIXED as of the latest build (May 2020)

@varun It is May 1, 2020 and I am looking at build 24.1.2 on Mac and NOT seeing the behaviour that the Adobe Product Manager is describing.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Open up latest AI
2. Create and select a shape
3. Object > Transform > Rotate

4. Observe the "Preview" checkbox. It defaults to "Off". Set it to "On"
5. Close the dialog
6. With the shape still selected, Object > Transform > Scale
7. Observe the checkbox: checked. This has been the behaviour since time immemorial.

8. Close Illustrator completely
9. Open Illustrator, Open the same (or a new) document
10. Repeat steps 1-7.

I do not see why the Product Manager has told us the issue is fixed. This is the same behaviour as it has been for a decade.

THE REQUEST IS either:
A. always default the "Preview" option in all dialogs to "ON" (and it's ok to "sticky" your preference for that session)
or
B. make the user's selection sticky across all documents and all sessions (ie: save the user's preference even when the app is closed and reopened)
or
C. Let the user set their preference in Preferences / UI (this is the best option IMHO)

If someone else has gotten it to work as expected, please post here as I'm still hoping the Product Manager's words are true and I'm just missing a step somewhere.

Can anyone offer insight into the thought of setting to off by default? What's the rationale?? Is it a difficult feature for developers to make work? Just one reason please. Something. I'll settle for anything!!

Hi!
I've updated the software, but it is still not on by default.
Can anyone help?

Thanks so much Varun! This tiny change is much appreciated!

THIS.

IS.

INCREDIBLLLLLLLEEEEE!!!🐱‍🏍

As you can no doubt see from the comments, it really is stuff like this that makes us users happy. Not the new "features" that we'll probably never use (I'm looking at you, perspective grid), but the mundane, day-to-day stuff that we use hundreds of times a day. Thank you for (eventually) listening to and acting upon our feedback!

Please provide a settings option to make the "Preview" button always toggled on when performing different functions. 99% of the time I need to preview what I'm doing and the button is off by default - it's VERY annoying and I'm not sure why you would choose to do this.

Omg we did it! That's a great news. So simple yet so painful, glad we were heard!

awesome!

When is this "next release"

Many thanks, Avinash! Glad to hear it.

It doesn't look like this is moving beyond review anytime fast!

For anyone looking for a very affordable offset solution, look no further that Rick's Toolshed plugin here: https://rj-graffix.com/downloads/plugins/#toolshed

The offset can be preset to a specified distance, applied to open paths, and even be duplicated multiple times and then mirrored along the path.

omg yay, ty!

It only took 2 YEARS for you guys to address this basic functionality, but yay....?!?

I'm quite glad this is finally being addressed but PLEASE as the commenter below said, make it stick between restarts. Having to do this every time we start a new session will become very tedious, very quickly.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!
Please make it stick forever!!
...After illustrator is restarted, through updates, FOREVVVVEERRR!!!

...but for real about after restarts, otherwise it's still going to be really obnoxious.

THANK YOU! The biggest, best update to Illustrator in its ENTIRE history! At last!

Right - maybe you can move on to fixing the 32 year old Free Transform disaster now...?

What they said..