1) Yes, it is possible to disable launcher autohide. You need to install CompizConfigSettingsManager, launch ccsm and there in Unity experimental settings you can set Autohide:Never
2) However, for small screens (e.g. netbooks) having launcher always on is suboptimal because it causes vertical scroll on most pages. Therefore, configuring autohide timeout is still desireble.
So, downgrading this bug report to Wishlist is kinda OK, but saying Fix Releasing is not correct.
To clarify things:
1) Yes, it is possible to disable launcher autohide. You need to install CompizConfigSet tingsManager, launch ccsm and there in Unity experimental settings you can set Autohide:Never
2) However, for small screens (e.g. netbooks) having launcher always on is suboptimal because it causes vertical scroll on most pages. Therefore, configuring autohide timeout is still desireble.
So, downgrading this bug report to Wishlist is kinda OK, but saying Fix Releasing is not correct.