Ok, but we still need to collect some votes to start implementing this.

Note quite. I'm afraid producing a full-fledged mockup would be too time consuming for now, so I'll try to explain. The tag selection bar will appear directly above the notes list, below the search box (not on the tag sidebar). It will include selected tags, and when you hover the mouse you'll be able to remove tags from selection simply via clicking on "X" icon that appears on tag hover. Also there'll be a big "X" to cancel the tag filter altogether.
Hope this is easy to imagine )

Have you tried right-clicking in the tag sidebar and selecting "Only related tags"?

Chris, actually you're exactly describing what happens when you click on the second icon. A dropdown is shown, where you can activate the full text search (by selecting "Any Text Field" or "Anywhere"). There's also a shortcut for it: Alt+Down, A (or G to return Tag search)

It only happens when the note after editing would disappear from the list (because it doesn't satisfy the filters any more). The fiters are reset for you to keep seeing the note.
However you can also turn this off. You need to edit the cintanotes.settings file and set filters.autoreset.keepeditednotevisible to 0.
Actually now this is the default setting. But old installations still have this option turned on.

Actually if CN would parse links, then it would be easy to keep the friendly names - CintaNotes now supports it.
But the difficult part is parsing. Sometimes links are implemented via JavaScript, and here it would be impossible to do anything. So CN will understand only plain <a href=></a> tags. 

Good idea, Chris! The only thing I don't like is that it is a bit of a "hidden feature" - you have to read help to learn about it. Any ideas how to make it less subtle?

Chris, thanks for the suggestion!
Please take a look here - I think that's exactly what you want?
http://roadmap.cintanotes.com/topic/42030-tag-selection-bar/

Hi Chris, thanks for the suggestion! This is a useful one.
However, there's already a workaround for this. Please take a look at the following setting:
app.mainframe.tagsidebar.relevancemarker.width
Set it to 2 or 3, for example, and see the relevance visual indicators appear to the left of the tag names.