Either backlinks has more structured view in the sidebar (like a ToC or outline view) and auto-expands as I move my cursor (that one is solution for the edit mode only, but could be really cool) the corresponding backlinks section, or (and that was closer to my original idea) there would be a small indicator near the header, that we have incoming links for that sectoin, which is clickable, and opens a popup or opens the Backlinks sidebar.
Ooo, now I get it! And sounds interesting:) Aside from just being a quick way to open the backlinks panel, how would that number there improve your workflow?
No need for the exact count, just a “there are some backlinks” indicator is enough (for me). That indicates one can learn about the current concept in context.
An icon indicating that a header has backlinks would be nice! Much like embedded transclusions show an indicator icon.
It could be nice if hovering over the backlink icon showed a floating list of its backlinks. But more importantly, It would be good if clicking the reference icon did not navigate to another page like embedded transclusion do, but rather open a list in the backlinks pane, giving us a choice to review each related backlink in more detail and the option to click through to them from there.