For designers who value speed over gimmicks, Illustrator 2021 (specifically v25.3) remains the gold standard of modern vector editing. It is the "Windows 7 of Illustrator"—polished, powerful, and respectful of your system resources.
The 2021 release was defined by features that streamlined the design process: adobe illustrator 2021 version history
Adobe finally listened to the cries of beginners. The 2021 update introduced an for the Pen Tool. Before clicking, you could see exactly where the next curve would go. It didn't change the math (still Bezier curves), but it reduced the "guesswork" by 90%. For designers who value speed over gimmicks, Illustrator
The ability to swap entire color groups in a complex illustration with a single click. The 2021 update introduced an for the Pen Tool
While "Image Trace" had existed for years, Illustrator 2021 refined the conversion of raster to vector (often called "Vectorize") with more intuitive presets and cleaner path outputs. While not a headline feature like Recolor, the improvements in vectorization algorithms were crucial for professionals working with scanned sketches or low-resolution assets.