value of even-odd fill/winding fill

[Boldline]

Could someone explain the value of the "even-odd fill" option? I first learned about the even-odd fill and the winding fill when I first purchased Affinity Designer - prior to that using Illustrator, it was never something that had come up.
I notice it is a part of VS and I'm sure there's a good reason. My biased view finds it annoying lol as you can see in my screen video
All I want to do is fill shapes... overlap parts, merge them and fill in gaps. Using the default "even-odd" fill, it wants to give me a negative empty space anywhere the two parts overlap. I know I can swap over to winding fill under object>content, as well as in the appearance panel - but I don't understand why it is set as it is by default

[b77]

@Boldline If you have a composite object made from two or more objects that don't overlap initially (the ones in your video were combined with Union, I assume), I guess it's better to have the winding fill disabled so you can clearly see any unintended overlap when editing their segments even if the object doesn't have a stroke, and avoid any surprises if you send the shape to a vinyl cutter or some similar device.

In this case 'Normalize Winding' from the Object menu > Shape should fix it quickly.

[Boldline]

@vectoradmin Can winding fill be given the option to be set as the default? I am sure others use the alternative setting - but speaking for myself, I would rarely ever use anything but winding fill

[VectorStyler]

@Boldline AI also has this but I think the default there is Winding.
Once the winding fill mode is set for a shape (Appearance panel, or Object -> Content -> Winding Fill), the new shapes will be drawn with it.

I think there could be a preferences for having it on by default.