[Chris]

It's not obvious (to me anyway) that changes in the ordering of the sidebar are changes in the data rather than changes to the view of the data. (Or for that matter, that sorting in the main pane doesn't affect the underlying data; I don't see the basis on which you're making this distinction.) It's also not obvious that the sorting in the Edit menu will be applied to the sidebar and not the main pane. It's also not obvious that when items in the sidebar are selected that using the View>Sorting>Name choice will affect the items in the main pane.

At the least I would expect the Edit>Sort>By Name to be called something like Edit>Sort in Sidebar>By Name. Right now the interface gives no clue that one option affects the view in the main pane and the other affects the view in the sidebar.