it is not a catch. to do a transform you come from a origin state. you can tweek the amount of transformation with the selected algorithm until you select something. then you can move onto another operation and do the same. the math needs to applied so you can work on the next or else you would miss click and it would just keep transforming continuously with wrong original values which sounds horrible.
in 3D you have like a widget that does transforms and remains there to keep doing more transforms, however the transforms your doing with each algorithm are not shareable between them like a rotation, scale or move are to each other, some just use totally different elements to do their operations beyond basic algebra on one go.
Since you come from Ps I would say you cant transform and liquify in Ps why? because they use different tools? windows? here the options are next to each other and it is a problem because they share the same space. if anything it is easier to use in Krita because they operations of the same type and are closer to each other because of it.
But yeah if you really want something you can show how it’s done and prove everyone wrong, you dont need to take peoples word over stuff. Ps does not give you even the opportunity even, you eat what you pay and that is it 