Need "Auto Resume" Run Setting Feature

You mean something almost exactly like "auto pause"?

Pauses your watch when you stop running, resumes when you start again?

auto pause may fix the noted issue, but I think the suggestion is more like an auto start or start warning that the edge devices have (but in this case when paused vs before starting).

I have used the Garmin watches since auto pause didn’t work well (or I felt it didn’t- back around the FR305) so got used to manually pausing and resuming.

Briefly I tried to enable auto pause and adapt my body’s training but I kept hitting the button most of the time nearly as a habit or natural reaction to a stoplight.  Eventually went back to manual pause/resume as I had a handful of activities where I paused without realizing it but then assumed I was using auto pause to resume (leaving watch paused).

Separately a week or two ago I wore a long sleeve over my watch and pressed start when I began (I think).  I didn’t look at my watch for the short run, but heard a few alerts that seemed likely to be my performance condition and first mile split.  When approaching a stoplight late in the run I hit pause and didn’t feel or hear anything.  That caused me to check my watch under my sleeve and noticed it had never started.  I think I may have had a notification up at start and the early sounds were something else (sport mode timeout?).

anyway, some kind of continued warning when moving above some speed consistently while paused or at the start screen seems possibly useful to me and maybe not unnecessarily annoying? (other than driving to a start point?)

Yeah, I'm aware of "Auto Pause". But I prefer to manually stop and then start. The reason is that I can have precise control over when I stop vs. waiting for the watch to guess that I have.

Psychologically I remember to manually stop, but when the light turns green / I get the "walk" sign, there's a small part of my brain that says "go!" but I forget to press start again. This "Auto Resume" would help with that. 

I'm not sure what the downside is (and actually wish this was just automatic). In other words, the watch should know I'm running and auto-start that as an activity. But I realize that may be a "rabbit hole".

I suspect this has to do with the power management of the watch. It's easier for it to "auto pause" because it's already in a "high power use" mode already. Versus an "Auto Resume" which, perhaps when the watch is paused, is not the cause (and similar to no activity happening state).

I do understand that this adds "yet another" setting - and could live with not adding this if it's only me! =-)