I agree with you. I just love the challenge the style brings to the table by pushing the writer even further through the unfamiliarity. If I were to write right now, I’d write some stories in Spotlight to gain some practice and if I wanted to, I’d translate it them to Cinematic. I’ve seen very few authors do that, rather unintentionally or intentionally, but I do notice the bits and pieces of that level of writing style when they do that. I believe it truly makes a difference if one masters it.
I prefer the old Spotlight as well. I even created a suggestion about it if you’re interested:
And no, I don’t think you’re being too idealistic actually. That’s the ‘thinking outside the box’ I’m talking about. I’ve thought of something like that as well, but I don’t write at the moment. I think that kind of idea is actually a very creative one, and if made into a reality it would be something that wouldn’t have been seen on the app before, at least from a long time spanning all the way back to the old/original Spotlight style… No one has done something like that, but it technically wouldn’t be impossible.
Also, speaking of this, this thread might be of some interest to you as well:
It sure would be something interesting to experiment with. 