The Nav bar component should auto populate/change as pages are created, added, or edited rather than requiring manual entry/editing. This is pretty standard stuff across many CMS' or website builders.
Without this, many clients simply won't switch to WF (they are used to this functionality in all other platforms and don't want to learn the Designer to manually update). It would also make the new(ish) page templates/building more powerful!
It could include options for drop downs (based on folder structures in the pages menu), mega menus, etc.
Matt Rogers
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Webflow always leans hard towards flexibility rather that opinionated design patterns, so I can see why a forced nav structure would be difficult. I could see someone building that as a hybrid app though, that makes it easy to drop in a structured, opinionated nav.
What I'd love to see that I think would solve your problem here is "CMS item-bound static pages." Create any static page, and have the option to bind it to a specific CMS item on a 1:1 basis.
The static page URL is now known as the CMS page for that item, which solves a ton of path problems.
The collection list can now directly contain static pages, which means your menus are easy to build and add items without editing the nav.
Hybrid structures are possible, like 49 project pages that all use the CMS template, and then the "1 that won't fit" as a static page, without breaking anything.
Navigation is easy, between the static page and the CMS item, and the topmost popup can work for accessing special CMS-specific fields such as the sorting position for the page in lists.