Currently there are three post/page statuses that can be set from the visual interface: published, draft, and pending. From PHP code there are also others, of course, as future or auto-draft, that are set by using other sections of the interface.
What I propose is a fourth status to add to the first three I mentioned: hidden. A hidden post/page is a content that is not visible. It is "published", but temporary removed from the blog. Differently from other statuses, "hidden" biases other aspect of your blog. For example, if that page is also referenced as an item in any menu, that item is hidden too, automatically. If that page is referenced from a link in another page/post, that link is automatically disabled. In practice, WP takes care of all references to an hidden post/page and disable them. As soon as an hidden post is taken back to publish status, all the references are restored.
Of course, that could be done by a plug-in too, but if this feature is embedded in WP itself, it can be more efficient.
Why hidden posts/pages? Many reasons. For example, there is content that should be visible only in some period of the year, or when a specific event occurs, or that should be temporary removed for legal or practical reasons and soon restored when possible. In all cases, to ensure that also any reference, menu, link, to that post/page is disabled could be quite challenging, even because in many cases you cannot simply disable a reference but you have to remove it. If you remove, for example, a menu item, you have to remember which specific style you applied to it or other properties, as soon as you restore it. By using "hidden" feature, it is no more necessary.
