A year and a half later and I still can't hide login items!

Question

This bug has been reported in these forums since September 2005, but there's still no official workaround.
Even Apple have documented this bug, way back in March 2006; I am starting to think they don't care about this issue.
If only the application windows of Apple's own software were consistent, it might make things easier, but when I click the red 'x' window button, some applications simply hide (Mail, Safari) and others shut down completely (iPhoto, GarageBand).
This is surely a very simple thing to fix.
Is this bug actually going to be addressed in Tiger OS X? Will it be present in Leopard?

Answer 1

The orange window button only ever minimizes the window to the
dock in my experience and there's a big difference between that and
hiding the application. When hidden, the applications window(s) are
no longer displayed, whereas when minimized, a miniature picture of
the window is stored in the dock and is updated to reflect that
window's contents.
Yes there is a difference between minimizing an application's window and hiding the application and using the term hide/minimize with the orange window button, I'm referring to an application's window only.
Fair enough, but surely closing the last open window of an
application should quit that application?
Not what these window buttons are designed for with applications that can utilize multiple windows. What you refer to is a Windows operating system function which I can't stand when using a Windoze PC at work. When wanting to close an application's window only quits the application with Windows.
The orange window button does not hide iPhoto or GarageBand,
it minimizes them. The only way to hide those applications is to
press the Apple key + h.
I used minimize/hide interchangeably in this regard which is not correct but I was referring to the application's window and iPhoto and GarageBand are single windowed applications.
iTunes is a slightly different animal with the red and orange window buttons serving the same purpose - minimizing/hiding the application's window which is a single windowed application but this was probably done since music can be playing either on the computer or wirelessly via Airtunes and you may not want to quit the application if the red window button was accidentally selected instead of the orange window button.
So these forums are not read by anyone with inside knowledge
of Apple's development plans? That's comforting to know.
This is not what I said. I said no one here knows and if someone here does know, they wouldn't be allowed to say since Apple does not announce their development plans. This is a user to user help forum only which is provided and moderated by Apple. Certainly there are Apple employees (who might be in development) that peruse these discussions but it is rare when an Apple employee responds to a post or thread here and they certainly aren't allowed to post information about Apple's development plans here or anywhere else.
I never said the above issues with window buttons were bugs,
I said they were inconsistencies in terms of design.
Fair enough but the red/orange/green window buttons are designed for an application's window function - a multiple-windowed application, not the application with the exception of the red window button for single windowed applications such as iPhoto, GarageBand and iTunes.