Maybe I just need to scrap Opera and use a browser I'm confident is secure.
Sometimes short and sweet is best, eh?
I'll give sharing my concerns and suggestions a try:

I've used the GX version of the Opera browser for a few years now as my default browser. There are some things that annoy me about it I'd like to remove from it or disable.

1. The sidebar. I don't use it, I don't want to see it. I don't want to have to close it constantly and go through several steps to hide it. Please include a right-click menu option to hide it that when we select "hide" it hides immediately with no other required steps.

2. Crapware integration (facebook, twitter, instagram, discord (especially!), etc). I don't want this garbage anywhere near my computer or any of my networks. I don't want any chance of any of my browsing history or traffic or anything associated with or going to these sites.
   These sites are not a convenience to me they're an invasive security risk and annoyance. Please provide a way to completely disable and get rid of these sites and everything pertaining to them.
   "Just don't click on them. All they do is open the site. If you don't login they're not doing anything. Just ignore them."
   They don't need to be present if they're not doing anything, Let us get rid of them if we choose to. Completely remove, not just disable and still have laying in the background. Gone!

3. The GX browser's cache is screwy. Please look in to it. I design websites. Even if I hit the refresh buttons both GX and the default version of Opera do not update my changes. I have to go to settings and delete cache, close it and restart it to get changes I've made to appear. All other browsers I use to test my work with refresh and display the changes I make immediately upon pressing the refresh icon or the F5 key. I have an auto-refresh extension for some of them that refreshes whenever there's a change.
   I haven't touched browser settings. I wouldn't ever go in to the settings at all if I didn't have to to clear cache to get pages to update. I use default settings on all of the browsers I use so I know what the majority of general (and computer illiterate) users experience with the web sites and apps I create.

Opera is losing a long-term fan and supporter.

Maybe I just need to scrap Opera and use a browser I'm confident is secure.
Sometimes short and sweet is best, eh?
I'll give sharing my concerns and suggestions a try:

I've used the GX version of the Opera browser for a few years now as my default browser. There are some things that annoy me about it I'd like to remove from it or disable.

1. The sidebar. I don't use it, I don't want to see it. I don't want to have to close it constantly and go through several steps to hide it. Please include a right-click menu option to hide it that when we select "hide" it hides immediately with no other required steps.

2. Crapware integration (facebook, twitter, instagram, discord (especially!), etc). I don't want this garbage anywhere near my computer or any of my networks. I don't want any chance of any of my browsing history or traffic or anything associated with or going to these sites.
   These sites are not a convenience to me they're an invasive security risk and annoyance. Please provide a way to completely disable and get rid of these sites and everything pertaining to them.
   "Just don't click on them. All they do is open the site. If you don't login they're not doing anything. Just ignore them."
   They don't need to be present if they're not doing anything, Let us get rid of them if we choose to. Completely remove, not just disable and still have laying in the background. Gone!

3. The GX browser's cache is screwy. Please look in to it. I design websites. Even if I hit the refresh buttons both GX and the default version of Opera do not update my changes. I have to go to settings and delete cache, close it and restart it to get changes I've made to appear. All other browsers I use to test my work with refresh and display the changes I make immediately upon pressing the refresh icon or the F5 key. I have an auto-refresh extension for some of them that refreshes whenever there's a change.
   I haven't touched browser settings. I wouldn't ever go in to the settings at all if I didn't have to to clear cache to get pages to update. I use default settings on all of the browsers I use so I know what the majority of general (and computer illiterate) users experience with the web sites and apps I create.

Opera is losing a long-term fan and supporter.