Wedge

Re: first post, I prefer having them not clickable because of potential usability issues when 'tapping' them twice.
However it might be a good idea to ensure they don't close if you click them.

Re: second post, I don't see what it has got to do with it..?

Re first post: it's actually bad UI for those people who are using a desktop because it's a link that doesn't go anywhere and it actually feels broken.

Second post... if the top levels are clickable in the admin panel, where would they go? For some things, like Plugins, going to the first menu item is OK but for some things - like Configuration - going to the first item is actually probably more confusing.

Bad UI but somehow needed at the time -- was the only way to have a very short and compact CSS+JS menu. I added pseudo-links precisely so they could be targeted along with the rest of the linkable menu items. But since they don't point to anything, browsers shouldn't make them look like links or whatever... What is it that ruins the UX? The hand pointer?

I don't think we can solve the top level destination either...

The reason the UX is broken... well, we have the main site-wide navigation menu which does expressly function as having the top level items be clickable, with dropdowns that are also normal dropdowns. While the menu in the profile and admin etc. the top level items are not clickable, meaning they are inconsistent.

Then you have the fact that the top level menu items in admin menus are rendered the same way the generic tabs are (for per-section navigation), and now we're confusing the user because we have two things that look the same which do not act the same: tabs that are links and tabs that are not links but cause menus to occur.

If we can't solve the top level destination, what the hell do we do with the main site-wide menu?

I see what you mean.
Maybe we could simply change the way menus (or contextual tabs) are rendered...
(I'd rather change tabs. Not that they're ugly, but they can probably made to look more like our button strips..?)

Well, that too would work, but then you're getting into the realms of having some button strips that act just as button strips, and some button strips that act as non clickable buttons with dropdowns. Whatever you do, you still end up creating something that does not behave like anything else in its style. Either we give it a unique look (and make it very clear that there are drop items), or we make them more like other menus and make them clickable.