I won't begin to tell you what should and should not happen with security features, since you understand the downstream implications of things like this better than any of us. However, one of the problems I mentioned in my original post still exists.
Occasionally, there is a picture that answers a question - but when I go to post the picture, I find out that I posted it
somewhere before. The question is, where...
When the shortcut feature was enabled, I could re-post (link to?) the same picture file already stored. Quite regularly, I cannot find the original thread that the picture was posted in. If that's the case, I cannot go through the steps you first outlined which uses the parameters.
Another downside to having direct links disabled is that there are SEVERAL threads which already contain direct links that now do not work.
Again, I'm not the one who has to deal with the problems of enabling direct links, so do what's best for you and the site overall.
