@nettrom_WMF, @KStoller-WMF: @Urbanecm_WMF explained that we used to use these IDs in some analytics to compare what kind of pages are in the help-panels across wikis. These IDs are now moot. Do we still care about this part of our analytics stack? Then we should probably do something about this. Otherwise, we probably should just remove them, they do not serve any functional purpose.

I'm in support of simplifying and removing these IDs, especially since it seems like it's exposing unnecessary complexity without any current user value.
But @nettrom_WMF please chime in if you think this is something we should focus on fixing rather than removing.

I think the last time we used this data to make changes was in 2019, where clicks on these links were one of the Help Panel Leading Indicators. My recollection, and @Trizek-WMF should correct me if I'm wrong, is that afterwards we had a fairly standard set of suggested links to go in the Help Panel (and subsequently the Help module on the Homepage) that reflected those stats.

At this point, I'm inclined to trust whatever guidance our Community Configuration documentation and @Trizek-WMF give the communities about what pages to link to. Or in other words: I'm also in support of simplifying this by removing these IDs.

In T370979#10119769, @nettrom_WMF wrote:

My recollection, and @Trizek-WMF should correct me if I'm wrong, is that afterwards we had a fairly standard set of suggested links to go in the Help Panel (and subsequently the Help module on the Homepage) that reflected those stats.

Yes, it is. We populated the Help panel based on a selection of help pages interwiki links. If no link was found, then we used the central documentation available at mediawiki.org.

I'm also in support of simplifying this by removing these IDs.

I'm in support too if they aren't useful anymore.

I guess this entails removing the code that reads and renders the IDs as attributes in both Help panel and Help homepage module, cleaning up IDs from existing config in wikis and, maybe, updating HelpPanel and HomepageModule schemas.