Separate marquee selecting and deselecting into different keys
Shift + marquee selecting should not simultaneously select and deselect objects, instead the two should be separated into different keys, such as 'Shift' for only adding to the current selection and 'Alt' only subtracting from it.

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Jinmu commented
I've wanted this for like 15 years. I've seen it requested over and over again. Seems like a pretty basic function that anyone who has used CAD/3D software knows is super useful. They could just make it an opt-in feature so as not to bug users who aren't familiar with it.
Would save sooo much time and frustration when you're working on something with a lot of objects or points crammed together. Also, I'm not a developer, but it seems like a relatively easy thing to implement?
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Kylem1701 commented
It's insane that this has been missing from Illustrator for decades when Photoshop, Animate, and thousands of other platforms have it. Please add this ASAP.
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Rob commented
Second the motion. Always use that funtion in Rhino, but wish it was in Illustrator. Sometimes I try to do most of the work in Rhino because its difficult to have precision when working in Illustrator.
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Michael Walz commented
I was going to post this, but found yours. But it's a very good idea - please implement it Adobe!
My original post:
----Could we have it so SHIFT "Adds" to selection (which is current effect), but then CONTROL or COMMAND "Subtracts" from the selection?
This would be a very useful interface tweak, and it works this way in Photoshop and Cinema 4D.
For example: I have a file with many overlapping shapes/masks. I make a large marquee selection, but accidentally grab several things I don't want. I can hold SHIFT and carefully select the objects I don't want to deselect them, BUT if I miss and hit something else I don't want, it gets added to my selection.
If CONTROL or COMMAND was always a "Subtract" modifier, I could easily click on objects to remove them from the current selection without worrying about it.