Vector shapes transform - can I hide the transform handles?

The recent improvements to the shape tools are great, but for my workflow, it created a problem and It's realy slowing me down.

My current project has many instances of using a large number of small shapes which I need to place in certan key poits around the canvas. usually to recreate some mechanical element in 2D form. For example I need to add circles wherever the reference image has rivets, or holes, or whatever.

in previous versions, what I did was create one shape and then while holding the ALT  key just drag it over any place where I needed one. This doesn't work anymore bacause the sahpes are small and that new transform handle that's always on gets in the way, making it impossible for me to both view the entire canvas AND be able to do my job.

Is there any way to disable this?