Actually, what I was looking to eliminate was the select before delete node. If there was a tool which would simply delete nodes as I single clicked them. Otherwise it's, select, delete, select, delete. Granted, I could select a batch of them, but I can only drag and select rectangular shapes. If I could lasso a bunch of nodes and delete them, that would be fine, but that's not possible right now.

The pencil tool kind of works, but you have to make sure that it is in proximity to the line so the cursor changes. I would like for it to stay in the mode where you can keep adjusting the shape.