??? Soft credits are NOT MONEY, so they couldn't be applied as a pledge payment against an unpaid pledge balance.

This makes sense to me, and I agree. I'll explain for those who may be confused:

1. Dan and Lucy, married constituents, frequently make their pledges and gifts together, with soft credit going to whomever doesn't create the pledge.
2. Dan makes a pledge and soft credits his wife Lucy.
3. Lucy sends in payment under her name, with no mention of husband's pledge. No outstanding pledge window pops up, so you don't know that the payment was for him.
4. Lucy has a cash gift on her record, soft credited to Dan, and Dan has an unpaid pledge.

Now, there are ways to figure out if there is a soft credit pledge than needs to be paid, but they take time and slow down efficiency a lot. If I could see in that outstanding pledge pop-up that Dan has a soft-credited pledge on Lucy's record, I could simply go to his record to pay it. However, currently I have to always Alt+CH, check for soft credits, go into the record to find out who it's from, then go all the way back and re-enter the correct donor name. This easily doubles or triples the time I normally take.