For point #2 I think the Monitoring portlet should be one click away from the main console page because I believe it is something an admin would want to use quite frequently. On the other hand I agree that tools such as "Plan Creator" should be put into it's own category and perhaps require two or more clicks from the navigation panel. This will make navigating through our console easier.
p.s. I am not really familiar with how the pluggable console works in terms of dynamically updating the side navigation links, but if portlets such as "Plan Creation" are being deployed and we intend for them to not be on the main navigation bar but under one of those links, I am not sure how it will handle this. Maybe the pluggable console can be extended to support expanding navigation buttons. This fix the problem.
