I don’t really understand why you’re resisting live transformations, which would allow one-step non-linear scaling. Scaling in increments and/or measuring things first is an approach that prioritises method over results; it’s indirect, slower, more difficult and less intuitive.
Scaling by dragging is so widespread in other apps - even my first-time students found its absence a disability.
Late to the party here but the lack of free transformation and / or live updates is utterly bewildering to me. It’s a consistent source of frustration. Oftentimes I’ve found myself coming round to the logic of a Glyphs workflow but I just can’t get over this and suspect I’m not the only one.