Excel had this right for three decades, but the recent Excel 365 upgrade (version 1902) broke it. Most people develop spreadsheets working top to bottom and left to right. This means that when we write a new formula, we usually want to reference cells to the left of the cell we are working on. Since the 8/2019 patch, the edit-directly-in-cell box is left aligned or right aligned depending on the format of the cell. So the edit mode box often hides the cells I am trying to reference when those cells are to the left. This means that I cannot select those cells with the mouse and I cannot see their contents when I am writing a formula.

I am now forced to uncheck the "Allow editing directly in cells" option, and I have to use the formula bar full time now. Annoying.