Fully agree. While pick and place offers great flexibility, it also breaks the flow of the interactive experience. (Picking samples via the menu move the users attention away from the tactile grid and copy/paste on the grid is a relatively slow game for people with good memory skills).
I have sketched out an alternative approach (see link below) that combines the best of all worlds, and is fully in line with the play’s interaction paradigm.
Feel free to add your vote here: Faster pick and place with a user-customizable sample palette
This would really be a major (work)flow experience improvement 