What’s the rationale for PASTE being offset?

[John Stanowski]

I believe the offset is there to make sure that the duplicate does not cover the original.
When users Duplicate something, and nothing appears to happen, they may thinking that the function does not work.
With the offset, there is no room for confusion. You see the duplicate immediately.
(I’m with you though. 99.999% of the time, I need my duplicates in the exact spot as the original.)

2019 iMac
3.6 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9
64 GB 2667 MHz DDR4
Radeon Pro Vega 48 8 GB
Software OS 10.15.3
Adobe CC

[Katryna Sleptzoff]

I believe I vaguely remember reading a more technical explanation on this very forum about that at some point. I remember there being a good reason, I think because of a technical limitation of some sort. But I can’t fully remember.

Regardless, you can still do what you want to though, which is called paste in place.
Select & cmd+c what youre trying to copy
then to paste in front hit cmd+f. to paste behind hit cmd+b. It will paste in the exact same place as what you copied.

Hope this helps!

[John Stanowski]

Yes, CMD F. Use it all the time.
I think the reason for the offset using CMD V is that, if it didn’t offset, it would lay exactly where the original was and it may not be clear that the object was in fact copied and pasted.
After all, why would someone paste a copy of something in the same exact place?
There are reasons actually. But I think Adobe thinks most people might get confused.

2019 iMac
3.6 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9
64 GB 2667 MHz DDR4
Radeon Pro Vega 48 8 GB
Software OS 10.15.3
Adobe CC