admittedly, it's not the most obvious way to make primitives. Modo's way is to remember what you drew last. So if you draw a primitive while pressing CTRL the object is drawn with same proportion and tesselation as the last time you drew one, then you can adjust it. If that was a perfect cube or sphere, then so is your new object. This method has it's advantages and disadvantages. So i understand what you're saying. There's no reason to have both an ellipsoid primitive and a sphere that can also make ellipsoids. But to call the UI
idiotic is a little bit harsh. I could say the same for a few other programs which are well revered at this website. But that's a matter of personal taste...
shorty