Is there a way to reduce the magnetic range diameter when dragging selected nodes with ALT-key? Would like to make the "gravity bell curve" a bit more narrow/slimmer -- if it makes sense. I know I can reduce the range of selected nodes, but the "drag" still appear to be too forcefull. Tried to press other keys to modify but with no result. Any suggestions?

The "Tweak tool" can do.

Thanks:)
I know, but I cannot prevent the tool adding/altering existing nodes. Do you know of a way to control this?

Long ago, it seems one could adjust the sculpt profile of the node tool via the preferences.xml.

But it looks like the sculpt function of the node tool has not gotten much attention recently.

https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inbox/-/issues/1321

I suggest adding comments to the report describing the improvements you'd like to see.

Just from a quick test; sculpt mode isn´t that bad methinks: