Hi @AllisonHinton,
I think your changes aren't really saved anywhere because of the confusion that could cause between that saved/draft grade vs the real one that's in effect. Regardless, I agree the situation is not ideal. I recently advocated for more consistency in the way Canvas handles user input, especially in SpeedGrader. Some items, like the overall assignment grade, save automatically while others require an additional button push. There are probably good arguments to be made for either method, but I feel like everything in SpeedGrader should work one way or the other. Going "buttonless" is way better for speed, but it could also lead to increased errors. The button is nice that it gives confirmation of an action, but that's a lot of extra clicking. At a minimum I feel Canvas should generate a warning any time you're about to do something that will cause some kind of text or number you entered to be completely lost.
I know this isn't necessarily a solution, but maybe others will see this and advocate for some of the same things.
-Chris