Here's the problem:

so, in gconf-settings i've got the key /apps/panel/toplevels/top_panel_screen0/auto_hide set to true, which generally works well. When I move the mouse up into the menu bar it unhides, and when i move it back out it re-hides.

The problem is if i do something like open up the menu bar, (let's say I've got the application switcher applet open for this), and then right click an app and click 'close' for example, then I can proceed to click around anywhere on the screen and the menu bar won't re-auto-hide even though it should, until i actually mouse back into (and out of) the panel. As well, similar results ensue when i use the volume control applet, etc. 

What I expect as a user:

1) if im in the app switcher and i right-click one and 'close' it, i expect the menu to re-hide right when i click 'close', or if i click out of the menu on the desktop or another window.

2) for the volume-control slider, what I would expect is for the menu and the slider to stay open until I click out of the slider.