Hi Mittineague,
Yes, I know this was never realized. That’s why I bumped the thread. 
And I understand I can ‘Dismiss’ (in 3 separate actions: New, Unread, Notifications) “unread” items. Unfortunately those dismiss actions are indiscriminate, but I have been discriminating about what I’ve set up to be emailed to me: I’m email-subscribed to a subset of categories + topics I’ve weighed in on. Those things come to my inbox and get priority. The rest, I read in the Discourse UI. As it is, I have to wade through the things I’ve already seen in my inbox to find the lower-priority items that I don’t have delivered straight to me.
Ann