P: Pressing the Esc key to exit 'text mode' negates all the changes in the text box

It is a problem, that we will do something about. But your perspective is quite skewed.

ESC should behave as it does in most other applications: as cancel (again, this is about as old as computer keyboards). But perhaps there can be an option for those that think ESC should mean commit.

@Chris still arguing after other colleagues already acknowledged it's a problem? Come on, at least express a doubt that someone might have a different opinion and it's a problem for many.
(for anyone else reading this, all the reasons why Esc should behave in Photoshop as all the other apps is in a comment above).

The most common case is clicking on the wrong text layer, making changes, then cancelling.

Escape has meant cancel for many, many years (and I don't mean in Photoshop).

THIS!!!
Compare how often you:

A: make a textframe and then thinks "ARGH THIS IS TEXT BAD, MUST DESTROY IT"
B: ok I write text and then switch to another tool.

If it's A, USE CTRL+Z like the rest of the world! :)

Seriously, there are no valid reasons to change the function of ESC if you look at it from a usability perspective, pleease change it back or make at least a switch in settings.

From a recent Adobe partner session...

Kevin O'Connor: It would be great if we could make typography behavior as similar in PS to Illustrator and InDesign as possible. For example, In InDesign and in Illustrator, when you are typing, you can stop typing and get the selection arrow by hitting the Escape key.In Photoshop, when you are typing, and you want to end your typing, if you hit the Escape key, it DELETES what you typed.There is NO UNDO, and you have to do it over again.If you have spent 10 minutes carefully crafting a typographic element in Photoshop, kerning, adjusting the size and leading, and getting it perfect, and then you hit Escape, you then utter unprintable words.

I can't tell you how much time I've spent kerning, baseline shifting, and resizing text only to watch it all go down the drain because my muscle memory from Illustrator and InDesign kicks in and I hit ESC. Just make it a preference option.

Great David! I was writing my complain about this issue but I've just seen that you are listening our voices. I'm Agree with all the folletto concern.

Thanks for listening.

Hi David. :)

Thanks for the reply. I was going to reply to Chris saying that of course I don't expect a straight change, it's a long-existing behaviour and it would upset a lot of people. However you already did changes like this to became better Mac OS players, like when you did the change to Cmd-H to hide in 2009. :)
http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2009/12/...

I think it was a good solution, and it might be replicable. I guess however that there are lots of possible alternatives, from a flag in the configuration panel to a re-binding of the shortcut to the aforementioned one. 🙂

When you are in the text tool, "M" types "M" -- it is a semi-modal state. Outside of the text tool and with no other text fields targeted, then "M" would activate the marquee tools.

You are not requesting a tiny change. Your suggested change would cause major complaints from users, would add confusion to using the text tool, and would add unnecessary steps to users' common workflows.

The current UI for the text tool in Photoshop is correct, and will remain for the foreseeable future.