The least practical or usefull tip is actually to upgrade to C3, because the Vertex Modeller is one of the main improvements, now there is the extrude tool, that makes straight extrusions if you keep you shift-key pressed. I did not use the VM in previous version, so I am not sure if that is something you can do (or is extruding just numerical?). The VM was too illogical and messy for me before C3, so I understand your struggle. I gave up and made that kind of extrusions/forms in the Spline Modeller for years.