[nbobko]

If you have normalizations enabled, you don't need to "switch into a vertical stack"

Given this layout:

    h_tiles
    ├── window1 (focused)
    ├── window2
    └── window3

`move left` will produce this layout:

    h_tiles
    ├── window1 (focused)
    └── v_tiles
        ├── window2
        └── window3

[idle_zealot]

Ah, so it does. I suppose this is an instance of my mental model not having adjusted.

[squigz]

For what it's worth, this video from i3 really helped me visualize how i3 and related WMs deal with windows - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWA8Pl57UBY