Thanks guys, I appreciate the responses.
A few years ago I started writing a vector library using TVector and TMatrix objects (I write scientific software at a university). At some point I encountered some unexpected behavior. I inquired here, and learned that objects were deprecated, or at least not maintained. It sounds like you (Nitorami) may have encountered the same issue. Despite the error in my earlier post, I was using object constructors, which I forgot. (I have long since rewritten the library using dynamic arrays and operator overloading).
I do use advanced records extensively, often to set and get options for a complex procedure which are logically grouped together. These are typically set in a dialog box, and then saved to a preferences dictionary in memory, which can be written to a file and reloaded when the program is restarted. Each such record must have default values, which I set in an Init method. It is not such a big deal, but it would be nice to have a constructor to do that automatically.
So at least one other person has had issues, at least with object constructors or inheritance. I suppose I could use objects and not use constructors or inheritance, but advanced records seem to work well.