How to use headlines and lists in Org to structure your thoughts?

[Karl Maihofer <ignoramus@gmx.de>]

The ongoing discussion about inline tasks and drawers withhin lists
much depends on the way you use Org, I think. Perhaps it is a good
idea to brainstorm some fundamental aspects in regard to headlines and
lists.

Why and in which situations do we use lists? I use lists a lot to
write down my thoughts. I think there are mainly two reasons for this:
- Headlines are exported as headlines, not as list items. ;-)
- In Headlines you do not have word wrap. So you always have to phrase
   a headline and then write your text below this headline. For me it
   is much easier to use lists and write, write, write... with word
   wrap.

I think these are the reasons for me to use lists a lot. But if I do
so, I cannot define tasks in my texts - the core concept of Org. To
solve this dilemma, I can think of two different approaches:

1. Make it possible to use inline tasks withhin lists. This is what
    Nicolas implemented (thanks a lot!!!) and what works very well. But
    it is not a "nice" concept. We discussed this already and I
    understand the reasons why Carsten and Nicolas himself have
    reservations. It it only a workaround.
2. Make headlines behave like list items. This means enabling word
    wrap for headlines and export the headlines as lists. If a headline
    should be exported as a headline you could use a tag :HEADLINE:. If
    this would be possible, I cannot see a reason why I should make
    such extensive use of lists.

What do you think? How do you use lists? Do you think the second
approach would make sense? Or do I miss something essential?

Regards,
Karl