From reading the docs and talking to Kirigami developers, it seems like we're abusing GlobalDrawer. It was intended to only be visible on mobile, as a kind of vertical menubar that you could call up at any time (on the desktop, a regular horizontal menubar would be displayed instead). Instead, we're using it on the desktop as an always-visible sidebar, which doesn't seem right, and causes bugs based on implementation details (see Bug 390927). We should consider using a more appropriate UI element that's designed to be an always-visible sidebar.
I don't see it as a problem at the moment and it's proved useful to maintain the mobile version. If it becomes a big problem, let's solve it.
One downside is that it's not resizable and our implementation somehow breaks its ability to auto-resize based on content width. Previously, people complained that it was too wide. Since I shortened it, people are happy about that, but I keep waiting for Dr Chapatin to file a bug report that it's now too narrow to accommodate long Brazilian Portuguese strings. :) (e.g. see Bug 385109) If it were resizable, either manually or automatically, both issues would be resolved. As is, we have to choose which one we can live with.
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #2) > I keep waiting for Dr Chapatin to file a bug report that > it's now too narrow to accommodate long Brazilian Portuguese strings. :) > (e.g. see Bug 385109) lol yesterday I was thinking about reporting this issue. Now I can see it's not necessary.