Merge tags and ‘Add Condition’ button only available after publishing a View

[crbdev]

Description

In GravityView, merge tags in Custom Content fields and the “Add Condition” button for Advanced Filtering are only visible after a View has been published. This limitation affects the backend admin experience in the View editor and may be confusing for users.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a new View (do not publish it yet).
2. Add a Custom Content field or configure Advanced Filtering.
3. Notice that field merge tags are not available in the Custom Content merge tag picker, and the “Add Condition” button is missing for the Advanced Filter.
4. Publish the View.
5. Observe that the merge tags and “Add Condition” options are now available.

Expected Behavior

Merge tags and Advanced Filtering options should ideally be available before publishing a View, so users can configure everything right away. There is no message explaining this to the user and therefore it could be confusing or appear as a bug.

Actual Behavior

These options only become available once the View has been published, requiring an extra step in the workflow.

Question

Is there a reason for this, or could it be improved so that merge tags and conditional filtering options are available in draft Views?