It's ONE extra mouse click to open up a box where you're going to be tapping multiple times.

It's not perfect but it's nowhere near as bad as it's being portrayed

why go backwards then?  One 'extra' mouse click here and there ends up to dozens if you work all day.  I don't post or beeyotch about stuff out here much but I think this is something that music software should inherently do- and do it simply- LIKE IN 8.5.3. 

Go back to 8.5.3? Most people, and I am assuming, do not set tempos this way...I, for one, don't. I tend to play with tempos a good bit before I settle on one. I don't think Cakewalk went backwards at all. I think they have gone forward with he majority of what users on here want. I also don't see ONE extra mouse click as a big deal here.

Different strokes for different folks. It's great that you're not affected by this. I don't know what your favorite Sonar workflow is, but I guarantee if the next version made you have to take extra steps every time you started a project, you'd notice.

This is not the end of the world, and I'll just compensate for Cakewalk's stumbling block to my workflow with a key binding.  

It's really not about Tap Tempo, it's about a program update that is actually LESS functional for a segment of faithful, paying users.  
 
Since some seem to misunderstand the basic point of this thread (at least, as I see it), I'd like to state: 
To keep all faithful users happy, software designers should not make any element of their program LESS easy to use as updates are issued.

Anyone who wants to argue with that should start their own thread titled, "I'm looking forward to Sonar getting more difficult to use with each update" and see who agrees.

Indeed Mel!  For anyone to say that the way tap tempo worked in 8.5.3 isn't BETTER designed than in X1 is apparently not using this software much.  But what do I know...  I only make a living using this stuff.

I never knew that Sonar had Tap Tempo...always wanted that. I am a happy MAN.