MacOS – Stop drag w/ click instead of release

I believe I figured out the difference:

Dragging:

1. Double tap and hold to begin dragging.
2. Release the mouse.
3. Depending on the amount of time that has passed, moving the mouse will do one of the following:
   • Brief delay: moving the mouse continues the dragging, essentially behaving the exact same way as drag lock. The cycle is then repeated once you release your finger.
   • Longer delay: dragging is stopped.

Dragging & Drag Lock:

1. Double tap and hold to begin dragging.
2. Release the mouse.
3. Moving the mouse will continue dragging.
4. Tap once to stop the dragging.

It's that brief delay that was throwing me off. There doesn't seem to be any way to customize the length of this delay. One thing that does help, though, is figuring out exactly how long this delay is. One method for figuring this out is the following:

1. Drag an icon from the dock a tiny bit so that if you were to release it, it wouldn't be deleted.
2. Release the mouse.
3. Observe how long it takes for the icon to move back to its place. That is the exact amount of minimum time that you should wait when you are finished dragging something.

Your trackpad is definitely dead. It needs a replacement. The dead line means that it is slowly dying. I have had these things. Probably your connector is getting old. But mine got burnt up because the hotel I was staying in did not have proper grounding in their mains supply. This meant that current was flowing from the metal parts and trackpad (it is electrified), through my body, and onto any grounded metal surface I touched. Trackpads are very sensitive to current changes as they have very thin wires running through them. The high ground current burns them off, either row by row or column by column.