Ai2025 - The Pencil tool has become unusable again! There's no accuracy—it’s too smooth! SOLVED!

I have and update here for everyone looking and hoping for this to be resolved.
I have a parallel thread going on with Adobe over at their uservoice forum where Im talking to the engineers.

Here it is:

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-desktop-bugs/suggestions/48973289-ai2025-the-pencil-tool-has-become-unusable-again

They are aware of the issue and want to help resolve it.
There was a suggestion to reset the illustrator preferences and that it would put the pencil tool accuracy back as before. While it does bring some improvements unfortunately it's not quite doing it all the way that is needed to restore accuracy fully.
I'm going to paste my post and extensive research here too just to explain and spread awareness

I’m on:

MacBook Pro Apple M1 Max PRO 64GB RAM.

macOS Sonoma 14.7 (23H124)

Illustrator 2025 version 29.0.0

Illustrator 2024 version 28.7.1

Wacom Intuos Pro Medium

I managed to properly reset my preferences this time, and while I did notice some changes in anchor point generation on the accuracy setting, the core issue still persists. 

Initially, I was glad to see some improvement, but after closer analysis, it became clear that the problem remains—it’s just more subtle now and requires a more granular explanation.

I’m including a recording from both before the preferences reset because other users seem to have the same problem and you can see what that issue looks like.

That recording im calling “pencilTool-PRE-PreferencesReset.mp4”

The recording after the preference reset is called “pencilTool-POST-PreferencesReset.mp4” which is the more relevant clip from now on and here follows an explanation.

As someone who has used the Pencil tool heavily on a daily basis at its most accurate setting for almost two decades, I can immediately tell when something is off.

After resetting the preferences, it may seem like the anchor point generation is back to normal, but it’s not. While it's closer to how it used to be, it’s still not close enough.

See my recording in the “pencilTool-POST-PreferencesReset.mp4” clip and you will see what I mean when i say there is a difference in the point generation.

I've also conducted extensive testing several times under the same settings and same conditions, and you can see in my charts how much anchor point generation has changed when comparing Illustrator 2014 (v28.7.1) to the 2025 (v29.0) version. Even after the preferences reset on the first accuracy tick.

There’s a 35-40% difference in the number of anchor points generated for the same object, under the same settings and conditions.

Please study my six charts in the image called “pencilTool-pointDifference-POST-PreferenceReset.png” of the point generation difference.

(1) My hope is that we can fix this to get back to where it was and even better, as it’s still not the same as it used to be.

Let's have a call and talk about it. I've mailed Rama the Engineering Manager and suggested a time for a call.

(2) Additional notes. Im also hoping for further improvement on this accuracy aspect. When the similar issue occurred in 2014 when the Pencil tool was rewritten, and Adobe was great about addressing it back then. 

While there was a fix made it wasn’t perfect, it was close enough than for me to further push it here in the forum. Unfortunately, this time it feels even further from what it used to be and feels wonky to draw with for someone who is used to the accurate pencil tool.

The "0.5px fidelity, 0% smoothing" setting was originally my suggestion for the first accuracy tick on the slider in the pencil tool options back in 2014 as this was the lowest value you could set it too when it had the numeric pencil tool options, however, this setting is just about adequate for accuracy but there is need for improvement for us who need more accuracy and more point generation. That’s why I’m also requesting an additional tick on the slider, closer to "0.2px fidelity, 0% smoothing." See my feature suggested screenshot in my previous posts and my examples that show closer to inkscapes amount of point generation.

I hope you’ll consider this and give the Pencil tool the attention and features it deserves for more accurately tracking the hand movement. I’m happy to assist further in any possible way.