The mirror answered "dashboard" for a browser that had simply never been
told, and RootRedirect took that as the user's choice - so the setting was
ignored on every device except the one that set it, and on that one too
after a logout cleared the mirror. The setting itself was stored correctly
the whole time, which is what made it look like nothing happened.
readStartDestination now says "unknown" rather than guessing, and a device
in that state waits for the real settings instead. That costs one wait,
once per device; afterwards the mirror answers and the launch is as fast
as before. Bounded by a timeout, because loadSettings deliberately leaves
isLoaded false on a failed request so it can retry - without the floor, a
launch with no backend would sit on the spinner forever.
Settings -> General -> Startup: start on the dashboard (unchanged default)
or straight in the active trip, on a tab of your choice. Three clicks and
three loads less for someone entering expenses while actually travelling,
which is where the request came from.
The redirect sits on '/' because that is what a shortcut, a bookmark and
the installed PWA all launch (manifest start_url). /dashboard keeps
working as itself - redirecting there too would leave no way back to it.
The preference is mirrored into localStorage, the way the language and
the theme snapshot already are, so the first paint can decide without
waiting on GET /api/settings. That keeps the default launch exactly as
fast as before: only someone who asked for the trip pays for the lookup,
and if it fails or they have no trip they get the dashboard. Right after
login the store already holds the real settings, so those win there.
Login stops hardcoding /dashboard as its fallback and hands the decision
to the same place, so there is one answer to "where does TREK open".
Maurice