[josefdlange]

I have literally never encountered this specific UX issue. Having using OS X and macOS for just about its entire fifteen year lifespan, I don't even know how or why it would happen, to be honest.

The only issue I encounter here and there is if I have windows scattered across spaces and full-screen windows, switching just to the app usually picks the wrong window, and then because of the full-screen window complications, I can't simple Command+` around, I need to use Spaces shortcuts to navigate to the left or right.

Edit: I think I understand the scenario after thinking a few more minutes: you've closed all the windows of an application, but you have not exited the application entirely. I agree with the existing behavior. I don't want apps spawning new windows every time I go to them. If I want the window later, I don't close it. If I just don't want to see it, I hide the app -- but not minimizing it in the Dock either. Hiding it is like turning the other way, minimizing is like folding it up and putting it in my pocket. If I just hid it, I can just turn back to it when I want it. If I folded it up, I have to go through the "pain" of unfolding.

[c17r]

Open Chrome with a single window. Minimize the window. Then try to Command-Tab to it. It'll bring Chrome to the fore-front, as your menubar will tell you, but the window stays minimized on the Dock.

[josefdlange]

Thanks for the info -- I think that's covered in what I describe in my edit, though likely not as directly as this. In my edit I realized that an open app with no open windows causes this behavior; a window being confined in the Dock must behave the same way.