If you `set-option mouse on`, tmux will let you use copy-mode just by clicking and dragging (intelligently within panes, negating the need to resize-pane -Z). But TBH I often do almost the same thing (but Xorg does its part of the copy-pasta without forcing any Emacs-esque three-finger keyboard chording, thank goodness), selecting text is the only thing I ever use the mouse for in the terminal (except rare scrolling, especially overflowed weechat bars), so I keep tmux’s mouse support off.

Ah yeah, I use that configuration option (love it), but I think the issue is that highlighting text doesn't stay highlighted unless I hold shift -- which shifts the mouse functionality to the terminal emulator. Maybe there's a setting to get around that, but it hasn't been a big enough deal to really try and figure out.

> It's still a bit of a pane

I see what you did there :)