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In Experience Manager you can choose to insert or drag-and-drop existing content (Component Presentations) onto a Page.
Is there a technical or functional reason to have both options?
The documentation explains that if you Experience Manager (XPM) regions, it's better to drag instead of using the Insert command. So is Insert optional?
I would imagine insert was there earlier and drag and drop was an improvement at one point for better user experience, or they could have been both added from the beginning, not sure. Nowadays most software out there aims to support drag and drop while still maintaining menu operations (for legacy reasons or for completeness/software user interface standards). So yeah, the reasons could be either "legacy"/old style or software ui standards.
An example of why drag and dropping is better is (future) support for highlighting the regions so you can easily see where you would put your content.
Not everyone has the physical co-ordination to be able to drag-and-drop with enough accuracy. It makes sense to support both drag-and-drop for the users that find this easier, and insert for those who do not.
Here's a link that explains some of the issues: https://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/keyboard-operation-keyboard-operable.html
I think the current logic regarding where the Insert button inserts is a bit dubious and that may be the reason why the documentation recommends to not use it if you have Regions on the Page.
However, if the logic properly utilizes constraints on the Page itself and its Regions to determine an appropriate place to insert, it may be a much simpler alternative to drag-and-drop: instead of letting the user find an appropriate drop location, the system can find it for you.
