The behaviour is different to SubD. In SubD, you use the handle to extrude, and the extruded edge is then what you have selected. So you can extrude one edge multiple times in succession.
With surfaces, when you extrude, you have the original edge reselected. So it’s not as fluid. Maybe would be nice for the extruded object to be appended into a polysurface (in the case of extruding a surface) or appending to the polysurface if an existing polysurface. Again, when you extrude with subds from the gumball handle, you’re ‘continuing’ the first object, as it were.
Also, on SubDs, with SoftTransform, the gumball doesn’t relocate after the drag.