I agree it's not necessary, but i like having it because it lets me separate what's going to be added before i actually commit.

I still commit small, frequent. But i like `git add -p` to skip debug lines, hardcoded conditions, etc. I don't want to mistakenly auto commit a whole pile of lines and then have to remove debugs/hacks/etc from things i've committed.

Stage + Unstaged is my working area, and the two live together quite nicely to me personally. I could live without it, definitely.. but i'm not sure i'd want to.

I guess each to their own. I want to stage my commit with regular commands, and then have the staging area work with (diff, add/remove etc).

I don't care for an interactive tool, IMHO I prefer using commands that are repeatable and learnable instead of stepping through some interactive workflow all the time.

How do you construct a commit, in order to commit regularly, without having a staging environment in which to compose that commit?

Is the branch-tip simply the staging area? What if you're only half-done with that final commit?