I disagree that missing section numbers are a severe usability hit.
Especially in the context that the new docs are constantly updated,
there's no telling when section numbers will shift, misleading those who
only navigate by section number. In contrast, a link is persistent and
usually also quicker to get to.

That said, I acknowledge the wish for section numbers, and there is an
issue entry about it in the tracker for the Sphinx project, which is
used to build the new docs, at <http://code.google.com/p/sphinx>.

Closing this one as duplicate.