gmailgmail-labels
When labeling a message with a nested label the message does not appear in the parent label, which in my opinion would be the power having a label hierarchy.
Is there a way to automatically apply the parent label when moving a message to a sublabel?
For example, given the following labels…
Pending
Today
Week
I would like every message labeled Today to also appear in Pending, without having to apply a filter manually.
As you've discovered, removing a parent label removes all of its child labels as well. This is a design decision and I'll wager that they researched whether more people would expect the children to be removed or moved up one level to the top. I also expect that it's much easier to code. (Can you imagine how complex it would be to manage a four-level deep nested label when you delete a parent at level two?) The warning message could probably be clearer.
As to your second question, un-nesting a label:
edit
This can be fixed by using the Inbox settings page and uncheck the option to have important mail ignore filters.
Best Answer
I managed to achieve a similar functionality this by enabling the Quick Links lab and then setting a quick link to the following seach: