Clicking in the terminal area of an unfocused gnome-terminal does not set the focus to the window, but leaves it at the last focused application. For new users, the principle of least surprise would suggest that the window should acquire focus when clicked on anywhere. gnome-core- 1.4.0.4-38
This really has to do with Sawfish not g-t, assuming you are using Sawfish. Doesn't the same thing happen with every other application as well? Clicking in the main part of the window rather than on the titlebar doesn't focus the window?
I'm using Sawfish (the standard setup that came with RH7.2) and I'm having trouble getting consistent focus behavior. Ximian Evolution will accept focus if clicked on anywhere. Mozilla and Pan require that I click the title bar. g-t seems to have a 3-state action when I click on the panel button, going from surfaced to focused to minimized. My biggest problem is that I'll click on the terminal's panel button and see it surface but not notice that it didn't focus, so my keystrokes continue to go to the previous application, sometimes to disasterous effect.
Yeah these issues aren't the apps fault in general, they are mostly to be blamed on Sawfish. If you're up for it you might try the new Sawfish version at ftp://people.redhat.com/hp/gnomehide/ and let me know if that helps. You may also need rep-gtk, librep packages from that directory. But you shouldn't need much if any of the other stuff in there in order to upgrade Sawfish.
Sawfish 1.0.1 may fix this, let me know.
Closing ancient bugs