Ah ok, so creating a thing encompasses the following three so-called “activity types”…
| Activity | WU |
|---|---|
| Each thing written to or modified in the database | 0.5 |
| Running a server-side workflow action | 0.6 |
| Each thing returned from the database | 0.015 |
| Total | 1.12 (rounded) |
That actually makes perfect sense now. When you create a thing, you’re writing a thing to the DB, running a server-side action, and returning the thing that was just created to the workflow (so it can be referenced in subsequent actions as Result of step x).
Given that, I completely agree that a ton of confusion could be avoided with a clearer presentation of the data in the charts and logs.
Maybe it’s an oversight, or maybe there’s some technical reason that made the current implementation more “convenient” for the engineers - like maybe some data isn’t readily available until the WF has completed. Either way, I agree that the current UI makes it more difficult to pinpoint WU “hotspots”.
At least we have a better understanding of it now, so thanks for bringing this to everyone’s attention. 
