Thanks guys!
Switching on the palette when I notice that it's switched off is not so much a problem as not realising that it's off and merrily typing in dimensions thinking that what I'm drawing is going to be to those dimensions, and finding out things are all over the place (by fractions of a millimetre) because AC takes the dimensions based on where the cursor is when I press Enter instead of what I typed in (since the tracker is off and I didn't realise it)... and breathe..
I know it's also a matter of paying constant attention to whether the palette is on or off on the screen, but in states of constant rush with deadlines (and at 1am), that's not always feasible. It's easy to miss, and has been missed a number of times before and a pain to backtrack.
Seems like a longstanding bug that's not yet fixed.