Hrm, I guess between my mini-topic-drift and imprecise language, I didn't express myself very well...
To summarize my various posts in this thread:
Discourse's current behavior with respect to the topic "tracking" options:
Muted: notifies on badge receipt. Topic does not appear in unread list, does not get new post count circles
Regular: notifies on @mention, direct reply1, badge receipt, and like receipt. Topic does not appear in unread list, does not get new/unread post count circles.
Tracking: notifies on @mention, direct reply1, badge receipt, and like receipt. Topic appears in unread list and gets new/unread post count circles.
Watching: notifies on @mention, ALL replies, badge receipt, and like receipt. Topic appears in unread list and gets new/unread post count circles.
1Direct reply: when someone replies to a post you made. As opposed to a reply made to a different poster in the thread.
The original bug report:
Muted says it suppresses all notifications, but does not suppress badge receipt notifications.
The additional clarification request/suggestion (http://what.thedailywtf.com/t/still-receiving-badge-notifications-from-muted-topic/4793/3?u=izzion):
Improve the copy of all four tracking options to indicate whether badge/like notifications are included in that tracking option.
The suggestion to modify the behavior of the existing tracking options (the same post as above):
Request to change "Regular" tracking to exclude notifications on badges and likes. This would change Regular to be as follows: notifies on @mention and direct reply only. Topic does not appear in unread list and does not get new/unread posts circles.
I'm not really that attached to the suggestion on changing "Regular". It would be nice for me (because of the likes thread), but I don't think I can actually build a justification to it for a "normal" use case.