Any chance to make Notes the exception?
Testing this out, Tab works fine as expected for a notes feature when it’s floating. When it’s docked it doesn’t and it jumps to another panel. Having Tab not work would just be strange and not expected especially since Tab actually works in the space to write text in both Text: Simple & Rich filters.
It would make sense to have Notes floating as a default since anyone who writes Notes on any kind of app would usually have a simple Notes app floating. The equivalent feature in Resolve has it floating and in fact cannot be docked.
I cannot think of an alternative unless that is to change the shortcut keys to jump to another panel. Maybe Tab could be used to just move around the one panel you are on and pressing Ctrl with Alt then the corresponding number of a panel would actually switch to that panel. Or have it that when you press the shortcut key for a panel, instead of it just closing if it’s up even if the focus is not on it, it will close it only after it’s been selected. So if you have the Markers panel open but the focus is not on it, pressing Ctrl+Shift+6 will put the focus on it. Then pressing Ctrl+Shift+6 after the focus is on it will close it.
Another thing I want to suggest is to change the spot of the Notes icon and with that its shortcut key. It’s strange to have that as the last icon on the list. Maybe like after the Recent icon since if someone has Notes for a project that they are opening again then they would probably want to look at their notes before starting again or before the History icon.