There's this option to make a new edge/face from verts, which works exactly as you'd expect when you click the option on this right-click menu. It has a hotkey here, F, which... if you use from this right-click menu will shrink/fatten the verts instead, which itself has the "Alt S" hotkey in this menu. If you hit F from outside this menu, it'll make a new edge/face from the verts.
I don't mind that much but Blender's UI works so differently from any other program I work with, it always takes some getting used to when I dive back into it after a month or two off. It feels like everything works the opposite from how it looks like it obviously should, and it's only after using it all day that it feels normal again.