Not sure I see any advantage. However, in Big Sur (using PathFinder or Finder), only the path is displayed, not the actual file. I can see how that could be useful. OTOH, I need to have a PathFinder (or rarely a Finder) window open, so the item is already selected. Not much of a power user here, I guess! 
I not only use the Proxy Icon, but find it indispensable to be able to CMD-Click on it to open a pop-up menu that leads you back to all the folders in the hierarchy that contains the file in question. When I’m working with downloaded stock image files, it’s by far the handiest way to move that image from its default Downloads Folder location to the folder where my project lives.
In general, I use anything that is available in the window’s Title Bar—including the Rename caret that is a recent-ish addition. I was indignant when the proxy icon seemed to have vanished, and grateful for everyone who found ways to make it appear permanently. I’m hoping Apple’s obsession with hiding UI stuff is ebbing!
By the way, I’ve also been a heavy user of Default Folder for years. I don’t see this as a “one or the other” thing. If I invoke the Open or Save dialogs, Default Folder works for me. If I have a file open and want to do something with it, or see what else is living in the folder with it, the proxy icon is my go-to.
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I’ve been using Macs almost as long as TidBITS has been published (I subscribed in 1992), and I’ve never acquired the habit of using proxy icons. I just checked, and I have the icons set to display in my Accessibility settings. I’ve rarely even noticed that they were there.
Maybe I’ve never gotten into the habit because I rarely drag icons (except when moving a file from one folder to another).
Like most others, I Command+click the proxy to verify the path of the file or open its enclosing folder. I also very frequently drag the icon of a document to BBEdit in my Dock because BBEdit is worlds better for editing plain text and plists.
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Likewise! I’ve used Macs since the SE and have never even heard the term previously.
Perhaps 3 times a week. Most of the time I use it to get to the parent folder.
Thanks for the tip (or re-tip?)! I use them occasionally, but now that I can get them to persist in the UI without hovering, they become an element I can see/recognize and use when needed, instead of needing to recall the feature.
Thank you all for reminding me of this very useful feature of macOS. I knew about proxy icons (Apple calls them “title icons”) but I didn’t realize how useful they are. Gary R., the proprietor of the excellent site, MacMost, has a nice video about them dated 9/8/2022, although he doesn’t discuss their use in terminal windows.
By the way, I recommend Gary’s site for all things macOS related: he has numerous video tutorials which I have found to be very useful even though I have been using Macs since 1984. His is one of the two Apple-related sites I support financially (the other is Tidbits).
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Sounds useful. I didn’t know about it, and I just enabled it! Your goal accomplished at this computer.
I didn’t know they had a name, but I’ve used them since the beginning days that they worked. Proxy icons, and command-dragging background window title bars to move background windows are two features I like to show non-Mac users some nifty tricks other OSes don’t have.
I never heard of it and still don’t have any idea what I would do with it or how it works. I’ve been a Mac user sine 1986 and was a programmer system designer (mainly writing compilers) or whatever that is called these days for over 40 years and still am mystified by the zillions of little things like this.
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The Command+click works even when there is no proxy, so that does not count as using it.
Command-clicking the title bar to get a file-hierarchy menu pre-dates proxy icons; that worked in the Finder in System 7 (though I’m pretty sure it only worked in the Finder back then.)
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Command-UpArrow is the quickest way to get to the parent folder in a Finder window. That was another tip I learned from someone at a Mac User Group back in the day.
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This was one feature I immediately turned back on when Apple giveth the option after taking it away. I use it more on my Mac at work where I don’t have Default Folder installed, but I regularly find it to be the most efficient way to copy or reference a folder in the Finder.
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Did you know you don’t even need to type the cd first? I didn’t! I was just fiddling around and discovered quite by accident that if you cmd-drag a proxy icon from the Finder into Terminal, Terminal will actually display and execute a cd command to the folder from which the proxy icon was dragged.
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Yes, I tested and OneDrive is the issue. Of course all my work files are on OneDrive and several times a day I need to drag them to emails. No proxy for me!
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Now, my use is “occasional”, but when my workflow was mostly document-focused, I used this all the time. In fact, it was one of the features that really charmed me when I realized (back in 2008) that that tiny little icon next to filenames on my husband’s new iMac was actually active and did something, as opposed to being mere decoration, as I was used to on WinXP. That, and Windows Vista (not to mention those commercials) got me to dump my PC as soon as I could–and I’ve never looked back. 
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I voted never, though I have used them occasionally – but like a handful of times over decades.
I use command-click on the title to access the root folder of the current document far more often, but I don’t see much need for the proxy icons. I generally have my work folders open in the finder and I can see the documents and drag them to Dock icons, Terminal, Mail attachment, or whatever I need.
I use Mission Control (or Exposé) to show all the windows of my current Space so I can easily get to various files as needed, and most apps have a “recent files” menu if it’s a document I accessed but don’t have handy. What good are proxy icons besides those use scenarios?
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I didn’t know they were called anything. I may have been using them without being aware of them.
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