I have a couple of questions on this and will give you a call.

This has been hard to reproduce but we have seen it. After reviewing this feature I think the answer is to remove it all together. It adds unnecessary complexity with little benefit. We'll evaluate doing this as a patch to the 2.4 which was just released. Let me know your thoughts. 

There is a feature in Contour when viewing an item to change the layout such that the tabs are located on the bottom, right, or hidden. This feature is the cause of the tabs being hidden intermittently. Down the road we may consider a better solution for changing the layout or location of areas like the tabs on the item.