Open Question: Your Favorite Ignored Rubric

Amplius lava me....
source: FSSP Liege

No one really does the 1962 Missal as the rubrics state. We have covered the transitional liturgy, the rite of Econe, and the rite of Gricigliano here; almost all current traditionalists use one of these variations of the old rite, which is generally better than 1962 strictly done. In the Pauline Mass, too, we have elements like "the priest turns to the congregation" ignored because he is already facing the congregation. 

It seems meet and right to gather opinions from readers as to which ignored rubrics from the various editions of the Roman rite need to be re-applied and which are so antiquated that they could safely be discarded. A few that come to my mind follow.

Pre-1962:

• The celebrant recited the Miserere psalm during the aspersion of water outside Paschaltide and the Confitemini during Paschaltide
• Cantors wear copes and sing the proper chants in medio choro on greater feasts days
• There should only be one altar card; the Lavabo psalm, ablution prayers, and Johannine prologue were supposed to be committed to memory
• Candles are not lit at Mass depending on whether the Mass was high or low, but the festive rank of the day:
• two candles for ferial days and simple feasts
• four candles for semi-double feasts, ember days, and lesser vigils
• six for double feasts, Sundays, days within octaves, and the major vigils

1962:

• The celebrant does not wear the biretta in the sanctuary
• The celebrant is no longer asked to bow his head to the Cross on the altar, only towards the Missal, wherever he happens to be standing whilst he read it
• The Confiteor is not recited before Communion

Paul VI:

• The celebrant turns toward to people to say Dominus vobiscum, presuming he is not already facing them (this may have been more a copy-paste from the old liturgy than a true desire for Mass ad orientem)
• The pseudo-Hippolytan Eucharistic Prayer is only to be used on weekdays
• The proper chants of the days are to be sung in plainsong, hymns only being a permissible substitution

Ignored All Around:

• There is no mention in older rubrics of an entrance procession up the center aisle in the Missals, although some commentators provide for such an action; in the medieval world in which the older Missals originated Mass was sung after Terce, which suggests the clergy were already in the sanctuary
• The Introit is the entrance hymn, not #128 in your blue booklet, Immaculate Mary

My immediate reaction is that the old[er] rite and the Paul VI Mass would benefit greatly from tidying up these loose points. The transitional rite would probably seem a bit barren and awkward if everything were observed to the letter. The Byzantine liturgy, by contrast, in your average Eastern Catholic or Orthodox church will have its flaws, but consistently comes closer to meeting the ideal, almost always done by a priest taught by another priest without the aid of too many written rubrics.