Copied from another comment: I work in healthcare, to be clear. I have certain faces which have complications I need in medical emergencies but not otherwise. I used to be able to switch to those one handed while resuscitating a patient. I can’t do that anymore. It’s a niche case but there are certainly circumstances in which being able to change things around in under a second was critical.

Because I need to change the watch face not based on time or location or anything other than “I need the other face right now” which can happen without prompting. No way to automate that.

At least for myself, I would swap faces over a dozen times a day, often one handed and in a setting in which I needed it immediately. A 3-4 second delay is very annoying.

Yeah but there are many of us who don’t see any utility to focus modes. I have my Apple stuff set up the way I use it all the time, and therefore wouldn’t customize anything in the different “modes”. I only need to be able to change my watch face in under a second. Focus mode isn’t going to do that.

Yes but I don’t want to have to turn on different focus modes when the only thing that will change is which watch face is showing. That’s ridiculous.

Yeah but some of us liked the easy swap and don’t want to take multiple seconds and active pressing to switch them.

You used to be able to swipe on the watch face and it would swipe between faces. It was nearly instant and extremely convenient.