Do you mean the spray hold, where you just press the button and it stays on spray? That is important. I often put the faucet on spray when I'm not actually holding it. It's very useful, especially for thawing things in a colander in the sink. It's also nice not to hold down the button when you are using the spray head. I like my Moen single handle pull-down, which has an easy-to-use spray hold button. It seems to have a spot resistant stainless finish.

What Moen do you have? We have been looking at Arbor.

the reviewer said you have to turn off the water to switch from spray to flow. is this a big drawback?

I love my Talis S high arc faucets!

Its true that you must continually hold the spray button in for the sprayer to work. Once you let it go, the water reverts back to a stream. Doesn't bother me. I've always had side sprayers which I found to be such pitas that I rarely used them. So for me, just *having* a sprayer on a convenient height faucet makes me happy as a sandboy. For some people, the lack of this feature is a deal breaker. I do just fine cooking complicated meals from scratch everyday. YMMV.

I have the Moen Arbor. To switch back and forth between spray and stream, you just press the switch. If you turn off the water while you have it on spray, it will also revert to stream so you're not turning on a spray by surprise. It's a nice function. It also seats itself very well.

I would not like to have to turn off the water to go back to stream. That sounds like something I would come to find annoying. I switch back and forth a lot, now that I can, when I'm rinsing something large or rinsing out the sink or washing the dog, for instance. The button is very convenient.