dear inkuser
if you have issues with the way the modifier-arrows work for inches in scribus 1.5, please specify what you exactly want and if the request is sane it will be implemented.
i tend to recall that it was not optimal in the past, and somebody suggested a new setup which has been then applied.
generally speaking, i prefer getting the software to have (very) good behaviors, rather than putting the effort in making it highly configurable.
sometimes there is a real need for different configurations, but, most of the time, the wish for configuration is more a sign that something is not good enough...