I hate it and it should die horrible death. 
If you make a selection in an ambiguous way, how do you propose we clarify that selection?
Have a prio list in options that you can setup for your workflows. Ex: Surfaces first, Curves second, Meshes third, etc.
Select the latest created object/closest to face/have an option for that? if there are multiple same type objects under cursor. Clicking the same spot again would select an older object.
That means you will never be able to select a surface if there are 2 curves over surface edge (you would just cycle through those curves) and you’re clicking that edge unless you use Selection filter. Or you would just have to get used to not click tons of overlapping objects. Or don’t have tons of overlapping objects.
Hitting Shift/Alt could be made to go down the selection prio list from options, like hitting Ctrl turns smart track point on. Hitting Shift could also cycle through the objects under cursor.
Interesting idea.
I know the “picker” in Rhino is fairly fragile with all it does currently.
Assuming it was possible, what if building this list, applying the logic, and making the “implied” selection took a lot of time? What if it guessed wrong?
Wouldn’t it be faster to be more deliberate when you make your selection, using the way it works now?
Sure, not in our workflows though. In ours it only slows us down with an extra prompt and selection clicks. Besides, I’m not advocating for completely removing it, just an options to not have it, like AutoCAD had it solved about couple of decades ago.
Are you aware that you don’t have to use it? That is, you can move the selection dialog box out of the way somewhere and when you hit an ambiguous selection just keep the mouse in the same place and use the mouse buttons to cycle through the object list and finally confirm the correct selection. Sounds like you would basically need to do the same with your proposed workflow.
-wim
Yes I am, except I can’t force it to prio surfaces over curves or closer to camera object over any other for the first selection. The control over first selection is what I’d really like to have.
Oh yeah, another one - I can’t zoom or pan while selecting with that pop-up on…
Here’s an example of how Selection pop-up gets in the way: