arcgis-prolegendstyle
In ArcMap 10.3 you were able to change the vertical/horizontal arrangement of patch, label, description in the legend via the Style button on the Legend Properties Items tab. I cannot locate something similar in ArcGIS Pro. It looks like you can change the order horizontally but I want to put the label above the patch. I have messed around with the offets and can move the labels around a bit but cannot adjust the patch location.
Am I missing something obvious?
The only solution we've found to date is one you've already rejected: convert to graphics. (Though I've not experienced the "move label, marker disapeared" problem you mention.) We just sigh, curse a little, suck it up and keep going. On the bright side this allows us to do things not otherwise possible. In this example below any given polygon on the map can have one, two or all three of the line types shown. Collapsing all the possibilities to one legend patch does wonders for conserving real estate, and makes it easier for the map reader to comprehend in the process. It's a gain worth the pain. Thanks go to Gary Stronghill for the design idea.
It's a slight fudge but try setting Width and Height on the Override default patch size part of the Legend Item properties to be very small but not zero i.e. 0.001. In my test it looks like the patch is either not there at all, or is too small to see. If you set to 0 then patches return to original size.
Best Answer
A similar question to yours has been asked at GeoNet as What happened to legend styles in Pro?
There does not seem to be anything in ArcGIS Pro 2.4 akin to the Legend Styles of ArcMap.
Consequently, if the options in ArcGIS Pro to Work with a legend do not meet your requirements I recommend that to submit an ArcGIS Idea. I looked for and could not find an existing one.