I'm not following you. Even if in theory Denise were to say, "Yes, let's jump on that split-usage wonkiness and fix it right up for you so your suggestion works exactly as described/intended", it would still not work the way you're saying it would (and cesy has not said what you're saying, either, she was just unsure how it might work). It's CSS-only and it's access-level-based only, so unless I'm missing something obvious here (I did not realize LJ leaks info in that way in order to show you the security level of each split-usage tag, but my idea should not allow that if it's done right) it shouldn't be a mixed bag on privacy if this is implemented.

But I can still see that "aha!" (mixed public/friends) is used on one locked entry.

But that's not a privacy issue. Anything the public can see, your friends can see, too. :)

As per cesy's comment: the style in the posted screencap is a mixed bag on privacy.

My screen cap, the one I put in the OP? As I said in the sentence that preceded it, "logged-out you won't see any of the extra information shown in this screen cap". Logged-in you won't, either, unless I have already granted you the correct access level to do so (and of course, I haven't done so, since no one but me is allowed to see my private posts, and no one but my access-list is allowed to see access-list-only posts on my DW). That's why I posted a screen cap, to show everyone what they can't see otherwise so they can understand how my suggestion would look and work.