Another idea:

Just a white frame, even that thick, feels less noticeable. The current solution makes it more readable thanks to the overlapping...
Plus you just threw away 'Flat / Gradient' buttons, which have their use. And these can apply both to fill and stroke! Doubling these will feel as clutter.

Here is another idea for the toolbox:

The question remains though — where to put the icons here, when the toolbar has two columns? Overlay chips? I remember making this mockup (the second image), a year ago. I bet there was a similar request.

I am enjoying the conversation, Steve. Thanks you for this excurse! I do agree with most of these, although I don’t have enough chances to verify these today. Used to be true at some point for sure.

Attributes I use still. I add Notes to objects, I change fill rule for compound paths (intentionally and not to fix the outlining of fonts), I toggle center points... Attributes has options other panels can’t host :) But overprints are less common now.

Back to the topic — I can’t imagine Ai team would make changed to the Fill / Stroke selector anytime soon.
The solution I can offer (theoretically) is to have two scripts, each one removing either a fill or a stroke. Then to bind these to custom hotkeys (via Actions or custom solutions like AHK (Windows, free) or Keyboard Maestro (Mac, paid)). I bet these exists even.

I started using Illustrator in 92. The boss placed a Mac 2 on the design desk and said this is supposed to be good for graphic designers - learn it. That was about it for training. I remember it had illustrator 88 - I think that was vrs 1 installed and also an early version of Typstyler. Ive used every version of illustrator since. Working at different places Ive used freehand and Corel as well. They all had advantages over the other. Corel was easy to use but terrible at colour management it was virtually useless if you were designing say a poster for offset printing with maybe a spot colour. It would be complete guesswork to know the outcome of the print. I loved the multiple pages in freehand and being able to copy and paste in place- great for setting up separations for screen printing. I remember being excited for vrs 4 for some reason. I might have been using a PC then.
Anyway the attributes panel has been there for a long time and important especially for overprinting. Also fonts were unstable in old versions so if you converted fonts to outlines the compound paths would play up so you needed to change direction of the inner paths of the A's and Ds to work properly. Maybe it's the type of work I do now but I haven't opened the attributes panel in years.
Ive probably rattled on enough, thanks for your replies.

Steve, what version did you start with?
The panel was there in Ai 10 I remember the most form old version. And in-panel editing of attributes happened in CS3 or CS4...
Freehand didn’t have it like this in a tool panel, but had a somewhat similar in Swatches — either fill or stroke to assign a swatch to...
Xara, InkScape, Corel — they all use a modifier or right-click (now as a option).

I wish I could know for sure.
Anyway — it is my guess on the way the selector looks, and I should have clarified that. Have no confirmation on this.

Ah Yes that's right the appearance panel- never a fan. I only use it if I have to adjust a filter effect setting. Had been working with illustrator for a decade before Illustrator introduced appearance panel. Tried to adopt using it for a while. When it came to working in a busy workplace and designers constantly working on each other's files - some had their way of stacking effects - nightmare to sort out. Also outputting files to print shops in the early days made the appearance panel more of a headache than anything. I know it works for a lot of designers... not me.

I understand the reasoning behind the request, yep. Flow is important.

Why overlapping? A design choice to visualize the currently focused attribute. In Illustrator you can have only one or another in focus.
Why? Because this selector is a simplified version of the more complex and powerful appearance system most users are not aware of (sadly).

If you open Appearance panel, you will see we can set more than one stroke and fill for an object.
Selecting any attribute in the panel will focus the Fill and Stroke in the selector (but not vice versa).
Every effect applied, swatch chosen, parameter tweaked will apply only to this selected attribute (or a top one if you have selected several) — otherwise Ai would have to guess out intentions, and it never works well in any system.

Yes with aim you can loose focus. Why does the fill and stroke have to be overlapping? Couldn't we just have them sitting side by side with an x in the middle of the coloured box? When you are drawing, and are in a certain headspace and flow you do things automatically without thinking. If your mind has to stop and double handle a task your focus can be distracted. That's probably why I put this post up in the first place.

Okay will do.

Same deal, I am almost out of F-keys, only a couple of slots left, for temp actions.
There is an existing request to allow us to use other modifiers in general: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/34616848
Please upvote it and share among those who might be interested in it (so far it has criminally low vote count).

X is an intended solution to focus fill and stroke and this requires attention, to see which one is active.
It make it a 'relative' hotkey. That’s why a request to have 'absolute' hotkeys to focus an attribute exists.

The buttons you offered are just one way to deal with the core problem, and it requires aiming. Useable in some times for some users.

Ah yes the colouring control.
I had accidentally switched that off when I was minimising the amount of tools I wanted in a custom workspace. I have hot keys set up for everything and actions as well for common tasks. In fact I have so many actions saved I have ran out or Function keys using (shift and command function buttons) wish we could use OPT & Control keys too. That maybe a new post request for later.

Back to the LHS Tool box stroke/colour its purely for speed in the moment. I often use the keystroke x to toggle between stroke and fill which is fine, but sometimes when you are flat out an immediate response is needed.
Anyway thanks for your replies.
Thanks,
Steve

I see now what you mean, thanks!

Firstly, the tool panel you have a screenshot of has the 'Fill Stroke' control, but misses the 'Coloring' control (other two available being Draw and Screen modes). One can toggle these at the bottom of the Edit Toolbar dropdown panel, called by 'three dots' button at the bottom of each tool panel, like the attached image shows.
Secondly, I see what you want to achieve with this — to get rid of the modality and to be able to remove any attribute of two without the need to activate it first. This reminds me of the approach other editor use, where we can set fill with a left click, but stroke with a right click, or by using a modifier to change the attribute set.
There is a separate request about this method: Absolute mode that always sets a fill a single click and stroke with the Alt+click/right click — http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/44104935
Another related request is Add Focus Fill and Focus Stroke commands we can assign hotkeys to — http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/47384021

The spots you chose though to place the 'none'-s are quite neat :) I am upvoting it.

Talking about the stroke and fill in the left hand side (LHS) tools.
Ive attached a file to explain.
Steve

Don’t get it, sorry.
Perhaps by 'LHS toolbox' (there is no LHS mode in Ai, only HSB — close, but different) you mean Color panel with HSB mode chosen?
If yes, then it does have the 'None' button with a red diagonal to remove the currently focused fill/stoke attribute.

Or do you mean something else entirely? Please provide a screenshot and kindly explain the need.