Maybe not a treatise but a few quick thoughts:
My father, uncle, & brother have all purchased MC & asked why they can't highlight files. I find this THE one most commonly asked question aimed at me when I am teaching others how to use MC's many functions, and I don't have a good answer for them as it is also a feature I too lament the dissapearance of.
Using the keyboard works but something so intuitive as using the mouse to highlight files does not, and it baffles me as to why.
Yes, if there lies space beneath a list of files, one may highlight away ...but I think a lot of new users are simply left frustrated, wondering, "What's wrong with this thing?"
Frusrated demo users = bad.
It doesn't feel right, and I wonder if others I also wishing that the highlight feature hadn't disppeared from the builds a ways back. I thought we used to be able to do it, nevertheless I perceive it as one of MC's autonomic functions that it needs to survive.
Dr. C