Accepting Transactions

Well I have a different take on this question.

First off I will point out that for Quicken Mac, Mobile, and Web the transactions do go directly into the register.

And for Quicken Windows you have the option of having them going directly into the register or not.

Long time Quicken Windows users (and Quicken Mac which from Quicken 2007 for Mac and below) are used to the Accept through Downloaded Transactions tab method because that is all that Quicken Windows provided until about 10 or so years ago.

When Quicken Mac was rewritten starting in 2007 the developers went with the procedure where the transactions go directly into the register, and there is a "review" process to make sure the transactions are correct.

Some time after that, that feature was included into Quicken Windows too.  And in fact that is the default for any new user of Quicken Windows.

The long time users saw "automatic" and immediately associated it with "guessing", "not checking", "out of control", ... without actually looking into how the user is suppose to use this process.

The two different procedures (when used right) work like this.
non automatic transaction entry mode:

Transactions come into the Downloaded Transactions tab.
The user selects a transaction in the Downloaded Transactions tab.
Quicken then shows that transaction in the register.  The user can now edit the transaction in the register to change things like the category, and then accept it into the register.  There is also an Accept All that shouldn't be used except after the user has checked to make sure all of the transactions are correct.

automatic transactions entry mode:

Transactions go directly into the register.
They are marked with either the New or the New Match status.
The user should review them and make changes as needed, and then mark them "Reviewed".  Note if Quicken matches a transaction that it shouldn't there is an option to unmatch it and then it can be manually matched to another existing transaction in the register.

I actually have a slight variation on this review process.  Since I'm reconciling to the online balance right after I review the transactions I don't mark transactions reviewed right after I check them.  Instead I review/edit them for the categories, and then I start the reconcile, and after the reconcile is done Quicken will automatically mark those transactions reviewed.

I personally prefer the automatic transaction entry mode because it allows me to see what categories are assigned to all the new transactions all at once, instead of having to select each in turn to see what Quicken assigns as the category.  It also allows me to use the full power of the register for doing things like sorting/filtering/deleting/...