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.