For instance the AttributeExposer (and all embedded exposers in other transformers) require you to enter data one row at a time or import a file to populate.
Look at the workflow for an AttributeExposer.
Current process, copy attributes from FME inspector -> open Excel -> paste attributes -> save file -> import/navigate to file -> mess with settings -> import files -> repeat if it is wrong.
If text boxes were a standard feature on basically all transformers it would be, copy attributes from FME inspector -> paste into transformer text box. That is two steps vs 8, but I'd argue it is much more like a >10x saving in time than a 4x saving.
But this is true for many more transformers, Testers require you to click on multiple columns per row to create rules.
Even if all that could be exposed was the current user input portion of the XML of the transformer in the FMW file I would find it much more appealing to dump raw text lists into something like Notepad++ and coerce it into the format that FME wanted then paste it into a text box rather than saving files to import. Or in the case of things like Testers simply not having any option to copy and paste multiple rows of rules.
