Yeah, same here about sometimes the arms being too small and having to move the cursor around to see where the arrows are.
I also have my nodes small, and zooming in is a must. π
Sometimes, I click and click on the nodes and nothing happens. Then, if I check the Tool Options Palette, I see that, for whatever reason, the MODE has been changed from EDIT MODE to DRAW LINES AND POLYLINES.
Working with Vector does require lots of attention to detail.