[Brian]

If I have a project with 10 steps, and it's due today, I'd personally rather see the highest possible count. If I know "wow, I have 10 things to do today", I can then plan my day accordingly.

If I glance at my Due Soon list and see a "1" badge next to that project, I may work on other things, then open the project realize I'm toast; there are more actions that need to be done than I now have time for.

I also now have to look inside the project and count if I can't remember how many steps it contains.

The proposed changes would also make it more likely that folks with sequential projects wouldn't see an action show up in either of those lists until the action hit the overdue list. Step 1 - no deadline. Step 2 - due yesterday. I check off Step 1 today, and I'm very unhappy.

If you want to reduce the counts in your badges, my suggestion would be to put the due date on the final action in the project, rather than on the project itself.