Timeline folders. We have them in Animate, Photoshop, Illustrator... precomps can utterly ruin your work and is NOT an alternatives to having a simple folder hierarchy - especially when dealing with shape layers or anything that requires continual rasterization.
There's a script that does this called Free Compose (aescripts.com/free-compose) ... has a few other cool and useful features too, lets you select layers directly in the comp, and more.
It's crazy! I'm in the same position because AE is the only app without a much better alternative, yet it's seemingly the one they put the least effort into.
I would be just as happy to see them build an entirely new node based composition type where you could nest layered comps or other node based comps inside it, with the ability to feed master properties through nodes. That would crush
Honestly, the sooner I can move away from Adobe the better. They just don't give a ****, as is illustrated by this thread being so well supported and so little listened to. We're not talking about a hard to build feature here. This is very basic stuff.
After Effects is the only reason I still pay the subscription. I've found alternatives for pretty much everything else that are free and do a good enough job for what I need.
Well then who is saying no? The person who made workflower did it on their own, and a whole team can't manage it? What I *want* you to respond is "yes, we are implementing this basic feature instead of some buggy new thing that nobody asked for, and you can expect it..."
I'm forced to use AE because of my job, but if I wasn't I'd never use it again. When a genuine competing product comes along AE is toast