Color Picker not working - Illustrator 28.5

In the most recent build of Illustrator (28.5) the color picker has changed in both function and usablity.  Previously, one could simply sample screen colors from raster images in the same manner as one would a vector color.  However, now users are forced to hold down "Shift" to accomplish this task, as sampling as "normal" simply results a transparent fill and stroke.  

As unnecessarily irritating as that is, what's far worse is color picker's behaviour around fonts, both outlined and not.  Previously, sampling any color with a font selected would — as expected — append the color of that font.  Now, it's any one's guess if it will work at all.  More often than not, I find myself needing to outline the font and either drill down into the group level and select each individual letter path or turn the image into a compound path for the color to be applied. 

Needless to say this is infurating, as it makes my workflow signficinatly more tedious.  The color picker has worked the same way for as long as I have used Illustrator — about 25 years now — and there seems to be no rhyme, reason, or advantage as to why Adobe forced these changes on us.

If there's a workaround, I'm happy to hear it. Failing that, Adobe, can you please not make our processes even more difficult?