Pathfinder menu/Merge paths functionality for building compound shapes

I'd love to be able to merge, add, subtract, intersect shapes like you can in Ae for more control over my shape animations. I know you can do this somewhat with non-zeros but it feels more limited and less intuitive. For example, I can subtract any part of a shape from another in Ae and the whole shape disappears, but with non-zeros, I still have to account for the part of the shape that isn't being subtracted showing up on my artboard.