Comment 17 for bug 481541

(In reply to comment #16)
> Actually the patch that we have now only affects links opened from external
> applications. It's pretty clear that a setting called "select tabs opened from
> links" just doesn't apply at all. This setting is just irrelevant in this
situation.

The attached patch does affect left clicks, not just external links. To have
only external links take focus all the time we want:

if (!gPrefService.getBoolPref("browser.tabs.loadInBackground") && aContext !=
nsCI.nsIBrowserDOMWindow.OPEN_EXTERNAL)
  gBrowser.selectedTab = newTab;

We should probably take this debate to mozillazine instead of spamming bugzilla.
Once a dev weighs in, I/or someone else can post a patch and get this fixed.