As far as I know this problem gets resolved by camming in closely on the end and making it larger on the screen...

That's what I do. But it is a pain for stretching the long thin pieces, since you can't see the whole at the same time.

One can also enter the numbers on the axis as well as a work around...

Yep, that's what I do. But being able to grab the handle would help a lot in many cases.