Ok, here is the issue I have with the add player hotkey solution. TD presents me with a dialog box to auto-seat the players. The ideal situation for me is for an option to auto-seat without presenting me with this dialog box asking me to move the players from unseated to their seat.
The reason for this, of course, is that the TD
suggests player movement. It doesn't force it. Thus, you are asked if you want to apply the movement suggestion. I suppose a preference could be added to skip the confirmation at Auto Seat time.
Next, I used 8 tables as a template and entered names one at a time and TD sat my players all at the same table. When I reach my eleventh player, TD assigned a seat at a new table and then wants to move players from the original table to the new table to balance.
I don't know how this could be happening, if you are using the Auto Seat feature. Auto Seat specifically seats the players at completely random seats, with no balancing algorithm involved. I just tried this from the Players tab, adding players and buying-in at the same time; from the Game window, adding players and buying-in at the same time; and from the Players tab, adding first, then buying-in separately. All with Auto Seat enabled. All were sat at random across 3 tables. I did this before the tournament started and while the tournament was already running. The software did not try to balance the tables at any time (although it did indicate, with the "unbalanced tables" icon that floats on the Game window, that the tables were unbalanced).
All I require is when I add a player for TD to randomly assign a seat and automatically seat him there without any intervention on my behalf. Even if the player hasn't bought in or paid in full.
My club currently averages 110 players per tournament and registration (and payment) is done within 60-90 minutes so speed is a factor when registering.
I will put a note on the to-do list about auto-seating before buying in. It's reasonable that this would be possible since there is an option to seat players before buying them in. But I can't guarantee its priority.