I think the issue cuts both ways. I'm indifferent about it being optional in Playing Now, but it seems a reasonable request. It probably won't be done, as it's being passed off as a feature integral to Playing Now. But it's just the same functionality that has always been in Play Doctor—the automatic adding of additional of tracks (and removal based on tracks skipped)— married to a smartlist. It might be described as, "Play this smartlist with this additional rule (i.e., what's entered in the text box), and maintain it." The rest is just a UI for presets of that instruction that's unnecessarily restrictive. As I mentioned in
NEW: Car Radio, with a more straightforward and flexible design, there's no reason why the buttons could not be added (optionally) to
any view.
Wherever the buttons appear, the straightforward underlying function would be easier to understand and make use of in a variety of ways if the handled in a more transparent manner. Imagine right-clicking a button reveals a 'Wizard...' command that shows a familiar 'Edit Search' dialog—that would show exactly what it does. The context menu could include a text box that behaves exactly as the current Play Doctor box. The rules produced by whatever is entered here could be shown separately in the Search dialog, recognizing they will be replaced by what's entered in the text box—if anything.
Why not offer something that's more straightforward, flexible and powerful? It's difficult to imagine how that might be done without making it obvious 'Car Radio' is just a gimmick that restricts access to features we already have, under a preset system that doesn't include the function and transparency most would expect from such a thing.
IMHO it's a pity these can't be disabled, but such is life 
Just avoid Playing Now.
I don't disagree. I just find it more of a pity thing isn't as simple and useful as it could be. In my Panes View, I have a 'playlist group' pane that includes all my audio playlists and smartlists. That provides me much the same functionality—without having to leave my Audio view—but without the convenience of the automatic updating of Play Doctor. It's also a PITA to have to switch views to make any modifications to lists, but that's exactly what I have to do with this 'feature'. So rather than getting a system whereby we can start any playlist from anywhere with the ability to modify it on-the-fly (via a button context menu) and have the result automatically updated, we have something that only works from Playing Now, doesn't allow presets to be modified before running, doesn't allow presets to be based on existing smartlists, and requires changing to Playlists to make any changes—or just to see how a preset has been configured. Sadly, my conclusion is much the same as yours.
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Topic: Playlist preset tabs... how do I remove them? (Read 8534 times)