Ultimately decided to go back to regular Split View and Slide Over on my iPad Pro.

Without a tiling system OR true freeform windowing, nothing about Stage Manager works for me. Not the strip, not the animations, the forced window placement, the lack of separate "desktops", or the limit of 4 windows per workspace.

Split View feels faster, more cohesive, and thought through. I only use Stage Manager on the Studio Display – begrudgingly – to avoid mirroring. So it goes.