I find it rather helpful and good...always show the featured tab even when there are 0 questions with bounties
Is it really "helpful and good" to create expectations and provide a link to what would be specific content, only to find having clicked said link that there's absolutely nothing there?
Even it being disabled carries UX issues of it not being clear why clicking things does nothing.
and it encourage users to use the bounty system
Surely clicking a button to find an empty page is going to have the opposite effect, and they're less likely to click it again? Whereas not seeing the button when there's no content, and then when they do it being there and not before might raise intrigue and so they click it - and no dissatisfaction of having no content to peruse.
Without clear indication that there's nothing to see once they click it, what will make them click it? A gamble now and then to see if something exists? This is bad UX IMO.
I see the red "0" is suggested, but what about consistency on this and other tabs? Does this mean we need to always have a number on the "featured" tab when there are questions, showing the total number? Then what colour is it? Or is it only visible when there are "0" featured questions and so not really an indication of total questions but just showing there are none, which the button not being visible already represents.
Also for consistency, do we add numbers to other tabs? When there are values and when it'll be "0"? What colour?