On a fresh startup, this is what I see:

And after opening a project via "A" button I see this:

What you circled is not normally there so my habit is to go to the "A" button. Call this an AutoCAD inconsistency.
I close tabs individually as I complete tasks. It's how I keep my thought process organized. Sometimes, I end up with all tabs closed and then what I see is the screen shot from the original post. I'll then move on to my next batch of tasks.
I've also had to switch to working from home for a few days. I don't have as much space for the mouse so I'm more prone to mis-clicks. It would just be convenient if I could make more accessible changes to my UI for my situation and use-patterns. I get that accessible UI customizing changes like that aren't worth the Devs' time (for a $2000/mo per seat license rental - where DOES that kind of money go?), I was just checking if something currently existed or not.
P.S. - I understand people can create mods and get into the LISP code to do whatever changes they please, but I don't define that as "accessible" not to mention that would require running some sort of installer that our IT won't allow.