To me, it still sounds like it’s probably the bug where you pass over the clip name and then click the clip where the bubble would be (if it was visible, which it wasn’t in the case of the bug), and which then opens the effects tab.
Is it the effects tab that’s opening? Are you on 8.5.30?
The bug is not happening anymore with 8.5.30 on my computer. I think that’s when the fix came.
Unless you’ve found another problem.