I can move Ref designators like C1 R4 and vales like 0.01 and 3.3K anywhere using the standard grid. They are NOT permanently tied to the symbols. Just try it.
I think you might be coming to kicad from eagle where the grid was a pita.
Forum remarks can be so hard to interpret sometimes, especially with “not all that frequent” posters, but still, I should have noticed a little sarcasm, when it slapped me in the face. 
BTW, AL = Acronym Literate.
Pita bread is good 
but never used Eagle.
Well perhaps we need to trade some schematic images to understand each other. I like to tuck in my ref des as closely as possible to the symbol without anything overlaying anything else. My image below is a sample of a recent schematic. I find the need to disable grid snap (or use a finer grid) when doing that. If I keep a 50 mil grid, then the ref des needs to be a bit further away, and that often requires the neighboring symbols to be further away in order to maintain clarity.
Moving the neighboring symbols further away leads to a larger diagram, which increases the need to zoom and pan when viewing on a monitor. Or requires the use of a magnifying glass when reading an A size print on paper.
I have a long-standing pet peeve of schematics which were drawn unnecessarily spread out. It rendered the whole thing more difficult to read.
Thanks I needed that.
My first move is to hit “O”, which does a good try to position text sensibly
I never knew the “Ctrl” trick to allow text to me moved off grid, thanks @BobZ
Even less reason now to ever change from 50 mil, I have requested on the tracker before, to make it much harder to change grid as so many beginners then end up on this forum with off grid symbols not connecting
I was not aware of that one. Ahh…OK…need to have the symbol selected. It does work…sort of…I would say that it is not as picky as I am. It did lay some text on top of a ground symbol just now.
The “O” command is not perfect, but is a good start before manually tidying with “CTRL” + mouse.
My point is that with these two steps, there is really little need to change from default grid
True, but this silly old fart still runs the grid down to 1 thou. to shuffle the Ref & Value around the board and schema. to make them look pretty… then swears when he does something else after forgetting to reset the grid… maybe I’ll learn to “get with it” one of these days.
I do the same. @davidsrsb previous post said that he wants to make changing the grid somewhat less convenient. To me, using the CTRL key is so convenient that I think it will be an easy habit to get into.
Funny thing; it seems that others on this forum are learning it from me. But I only learned of it from the forum maybe (guess) 2 weeks ago.
I wonder how long that has been a feature.
I have not had any responses regarding my earlier post question:
Does anyone have a good reason why we need to use a finer grid in schematic capture, instead of using the CTRL key?
So I take (that lack of responses) as a vote in favor of the direction proposed by @davidsrsb.
Does anyone have a good reason why we need to use a finer grid in schematic capture, instead of using the CTRL key?
Not a real reason, but some personal thoughts:
- For drawing symbols (graphic shapes/lines/rectangles, arcs in symbol editor) and drawing graphic shapes (documentation) I like to use a finer grid (0.025" or 0.01" grid) instead of directly “switch off” the grid with the CTRL-key-modifier. So I’m against a complete disabling of the finer grid-settings .
- Also I think the current situation with the (almost) same grid-settings-dialog in pcb-editor/schematic-editor is a good idea → this makes the GUI uniform across all editors → a user (me) has to learn only one dialog for all editors → good for my restricted brain / learning aptitude.
- there is already an gitlab-issue filed with demand for context-sensitive grids. This would influence the whole discussion. So maybe waiting for the result of the corresponding programming-effort?
- If I recall the last weeks correctly the most grid-related-issues in the forum where not created by intentionally/unintentionally changing the grid-size, but because of the CTRL-modifier. Holding CTRL to long at copy/pasting-actions results in a pasted copy which is not aligned to the grid anymore. A restriction of the grid-sizes would not prevent this kind of issues.
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Thanks I think that you have done a really nice job of shedding light on the issue.
I can see that finer grids are more useful for pcb and symbol editor. Less useful for schematic editor. So my thinking:
One dialog box in preferences which controls the accessibility of finer grids. Maybe a pulldown which permits selection of the finest allowed grid. Individual selections for Schematic editor, symbol editor, pcb editor. The defaults would be different. Default finest grid for schematic editor would be 50 mils. And in that preferences dialog box, we could include a note about CTRL key for temporarily turning off grid snap. Does this make sense?
What I am seeing here is that the CTRL key trick should be for cosmetic text only. Symbols and connectable labels should be strongly locked to grid. It’s way too easy to nudge these off grid and break nets
Are you classifying reference designations and component values as cosmetic text? (I do not use lipstick.)
My preferences (habit) is to set up Grid Properties Fast Switching (Alt 1 & 2) to 0.05 & 0.001.
0.05 covers the wires and symbols and 0.001 for text and graphics (generally only used after the schematic sheet is completed)
This pretty much covers the whole Schematic and also falls in line with @mf_ibfeew 's comments.
Also agree with @mf_ibfeew 's last point, but would like to add, in the case of @Fran_iii , it appears the OP just plain forgot how to get back to Grid Snap.
Ohhhh, showing your age there… I believe there are much more trendy names for that paint. 
Yes, anything that is not wire connection
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