[whpalmer4]

No, that's what it does, it isn't just you. It may just be that most people aren't actually creating projects that way(*), and thus haven't gotten annoyed enough to send enough bug reports that this has gotten to the top of the "fix-it" pile. Also, this isn't just a quick entry problem — the behavior happens in the Inbox as well. I agree that it is needlessly inefficient, and if you want to send in a bug report/feature suggestion, use Help->Send Feedback to get it into the development database.

While you certainly can create projects there, the goal is to help you get thoughts captured immediately before they are lost, and processing them into projects while capturing may run at cross purposes to that. I like to do my project creation in the Inbox, often assembling a number of items that have gotten there via clipping or quick entry. I can more easily check to make sure I'm not duplicating an existing project, look at existing start and due dates for scheduling, etc.

(*)Other methods for creating projects include outdenting actions or groups from the Inbox or other projects, dragging actions or groups to the sidebar, using the Add Project toolbar button (not in the default set, but easily added), clicking the "+" button at the bottom of the sidebar, using the contextual menu in the sidebar (control-or-right-click), New Project from the gear menu at the bottom of the sidebar, and File->Add Project. There may even be a few others :-)