Stephen, you bring some interesting points to the table. I agree with you that the current context bar has its uses. Your example of Permissions shows that clearly. But I do think that there is something special about Permissions: it is an administration task.
Take General Comments on the other hand. This package is used by all users to comment on published material in the site. Currently if one comments on say a news item the context bar changes from:
Main Site : News : News Item
to
Main Site : Comments
While the user does have access to other comments, these comments are all their own comments and it would make more sense for the context bar to read:
Main Site : My Account: My Comments
Only for a user with admin rights does the context bar
Main Site : Comments
make sense as the admin has access to all comments from all users.
I have noticed that users expect to see all the comments when they follow the Comments link from the context bar, even when they don't have admin permission. The proposed context bar might work better when adding a comment while a modified context bar of the current scheme seems appropriate when a users clicks on 'My Comments' from their workspace/account.
In my opinion both schemas have their place and should co-exist. Developers/designers can then choose which one is more appropriate for the job.
