The controls in VotV are pretty complex and slightly unconventional, but surprisingly elegant. The only big gaps I can think of are:

1. I can't take an item from my hotbar straight into a Grabbed state.
2. I can't take a Held item into a Grabbed state.
3. I can only rotate Grabbed items along one axis, and it's almost never the axis I need. This is mapped to Right-Click + moving the mouse. I had been trying to use the mouse wheel.
4. No crouch toggle.
5. No run toggle.

I think there are probably modifier inputs for #3 that I haven't figured out. If that is the case, please let me know.

Also, please consider adding an option to change the throw / precise placement modifier key to the Run key instead of the Drop/Hold key.  I understand the logic of throwing and precise placement being variations on Dropping, but it makes the input weirdly timing-based. Run is already used as a modifier with the Use key for tilting large objects, so it would make the "Run is a modifier" behavior more consistent in my opinion.

I honestly don't understand why there are still no crouch/run toggle modes. I really hate holding buttons for both of these actions.

I also don't understand why can't I double-click an item in the inventory to hold it and am forced to use keyboard to do that. Both mouse buttons do nothing in the inventory (yet they produce a noise SFX, like something is actually being accomplished). It would be much better if all the six options (that are being shown in the floating message when you hover the cursor over an item in the inventory) would actually be clickable with the mouse. For example, pressing RMB could trigger a clickable menu. But instead you HAVE to use use mouse to hover over an item to select it, and then you HAVE to use the keyboard to chose an action. You cannot interact with items in the inventory by only using mouse, or only using the keyboard, you HAVE to use both. Honestly, this is a terrible UI design.

I also wouldn't call VotV controls "elegant". They are very convoluted, and I think it's getting worse than before.

Take the drive box, for example, you have to hold 'E' to take the lid off, but you have to press LMB to put it back in. Two different actions with different holding behaviors for two very closely related activities.

You can also do it "the physics way", you can "grab" the lid and move it close enough to the box for it to snap back automatically, which is a neat mechanic. If you remember how to drop the lid off your hands, of course. By holding 'R'.  And you cannot take the lid off the box in the "physics" way, you have to hold 'E', and you'll end up "holding" it, not "grabbing".

I fail to see elegance in this. Not that it bothers me all that much, after all there are many different actions and mechanics in the game, but I can't help but think it could be improved, and what I see in the newer versions seems actually worse.

I genuinely believe it was better in the older VotV versions. In particular, the scrollable menus were much, MUCH better than what we have now. You were presented with a list of option which you could either scroll through with the mouse wheel or use the number keys on the keyboard to choose an action. And then, you would press a single button to perform chosen action - 'E'. That is a very simple and intuitive concept. The only thing I'd change is I would make pressing the keyboard key not just choose an action, but actually perform it as well (not sure though, but I'd at least try it). And the inventory menu actually had clickable buttons for each action. None of that is in the game anymore. Why? It's like the controls are all messed up now, because it "doesn't know what it wants to be". It's now the worst of both worlds.

And forcing players to memorize more keys and multiple ways of handling these keys (pressing/holding) for different actions is supposed to be better in some way? Yes, we already had lots of different keys for different actions and it was confusing, but it's not like the new system is improving that, it' just changed some keys/key combinations to "holding" keys instead. That still results in about the same amount of different actions. And it also isn't reducing the amount of text or "menus", there's still a wall of text next to the item every time you look at it. And that's for a reason, because most people would forget otherwise. Especially after not playing the game for some time. So how is that better in that regard? The only difference is that you cannot conveniently scroll through it and execute the action with a single button anymore.

And how intuitive or convenient do you find 'R'+LMB to throw the held item? You have to hold 'R' and then quickly press LMB, otherwise you'd be make a "holding 'R'" action instead. This is... really bad.

I do think the controls needs be improved, but I also think this is a downgrade and a step in the wrong direction.