Hi - I don’t personally know that much has changed since the last time that the same reporter as the bug you linked to had submitted that as a bug: 486701 – Windows can cover is missing from panels
If something were to have changed, it would presumably have been from some development effort happening related to the topic mentioned in comment #4 here: 484540 – Panel settings have regressed, "windows can cover" is a missing option and is gravely missed.
For what it’s worth - if the primary concern is being able to show an auto-hidden panel when it’s not necessarily easy to “press” the cursor into the screen edge, one thing to keep in mind is that the Application Launcher shortcut (typically Super/Meta) will bring a hidden panel into view along with it.
There are also some folks who have built add-ons including some hotkey toggling features: Show/hide main panel with a hotkey - #14 by luisbocanegra