Firstly, add an option to disable the “Save project?” prompt. It gets annoying, especially if one doesn’t use projects. I, for one, use Audacity as a handy audio editor and my outputs are audio files, not projects. It might be useful to have an optional prompt for saving the current audio file on exit. The best, I think, would be a “Save prompt” checkbox in Preferences, opening a radio button: “Warn for projects” or “Warn for audio.”
Secondly, add a “Save settings” checkbox for Effects operations to avoid having to move the sliders to the same positions over and over. I might have to amplify 25 files in a row by 1.6, having to drag the slider manually there every time is a chore. I grant that for very large operations there is the option of macros and presets, but usually that’s an overkill and cumbersome. And macros aren’t efficient for a series of similar operations inside the same audio file, for example, amplifying up, then applying a bass and treble change, then some other edit or skipping it. In short, let the program remember what I did last in that window.
Every effect dialog has a Presets & settings button that opens a menu where you can save and recall your custom settings.
Just about every effect remembers its last-used settings, even when Audacity is quit and re-launched.
The Amplify effect is a special case. When it is opened it analyses the selection and sets the Amplification to a value that will cause the highest peak in the selection to be amplified to 0 dB.
Here’s a way around this. The first time you set the Amplification to 1.6 dB, select the “1.6” and Copy. For the next file, when you do Effect > Amplify note that the amplification amount is selected. Just do a Paste. No need to tweak the sliders.
If you are applying the same effect to multiple tracks or selections in the same project, you can use Effect > Repeat (last effect).
There are other ways to possibly speed up your work flow.
In Preferences > Keyboard shortcuts you can assign keyboard shortcuts to the effects you use the most often.
In Effect > Plugin Manager you can turn off the effects you never use, shortening the Effect menu.
I hope this helps.