Am I understanding this correctly that anchoring the first and/or last stop of the day on a given route is only available if sequencing has been established for that route?

If so, then it feels like the anchoring feature is less impactful.  If I’ve sequenced the route, then I don’t need anchoring.

In my mind, the anchoring feature is best utilized when sequencing is not established, and I need to optimize my route with a preference for the first and/or last stop of the day.

Am I missing something?

I believe that the anchoring is available even if you havent sequenced. You can anchor a start, stop and then optimize within those parameter

@Kbaird You “believe”?  Have you tried it?  I just took another look and “Set as First Stop” is only available on my sequenced stops, not my non sequenced stops where I need it the most for optimization purposes.

My biggest issue with Route schedule is when I pull up the map it gets very slow, very fast. It can’t handle having more than 200 stops. Also the lack of being able to lasso and circle stops is frustrating. Having to click stop by stop to set it to a route is time consuming.

In my work ticket list within scheduling I display service note and ticket note. It allows me to see the notes without clicking into the tickets. If the notes are too bunched together and hard to read, you can hover over the notes and a pop out window will display so you can read the entire note.
In order to use the “set as first stop” that visit must be in the first position. But then once set, you can optimize the route. I also use the anchor to lock in jobs that can’t move even if its just that one visit for the day. 
I agree route scheduling is slow at times and it is time consuming having to click them individually. The lasso and circle stops I hope will come soon!