SUMMARY
Symlinks generally act like the thing being symlinked to apart from being marked as a symlink. This means, for example, if I right click on a symlink to a folder, just like when I right click on a folder, I get the option to add the path to the Places panel (in Dolphin the action is called Add to Bookmark).

However, if I drag-and-drop the item to the places panel instead, the folder view complains that the panel only supports folders.

Symlinks can become invalid (target renamed), but folder paths can also become invalid (folder gets deleted), so adding a symlink to a folder into the Places panel should be a supported interaction. Right now that can be done with the right click menu but not via drag-and-drop.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Create a symlink to a folder (in Dolphin, drag-and-drop folder to empty place, then Link Here, then give it a different name)
2. Right click on the symlink, select Add to Bookmark, and observe how it does work. Then remove the just-added bookmark item
3. Drag-and-drop the symlink to the Places panel.

OBSERVED RESULT
Dolphin or KIO refuses to add the symlink to a folder into the Places panel despite it being a valid interaction.

EXPECTED RESULT
The symlink to a folder gets added to the Places panel just like a normal folder would.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Operating System: KDE neon Unstable Edition
KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.80
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.12.0
Qt Version: 6.8.2
Kernel Version: 6.11.0-17-generic (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Neon package version for kf6-kio is 6.10.0+p24.04+vunstable+git20250218.0023-0