ya with the unfold tool, a good way to get straight uv's is to flatten out the borders of the shell, than use the unfold with with all but the borders selected, and pin unselected checked
@Sinking 1) regarding the smooth UVs tool, I'm not sure if we're talking about the same thing, but there's a toggle option there for the tool (pin borders if I remember correctly) so that the Shell border will/will not be affected by the smoothing. Both are useful for me. Seems to me you've loosened up and are starting to…