The hot_exit preference is indispensable, but reopening unsaved tabs without having exited ST first is apparently impossible, except with a plugin, such as Scratchpad. Currently, out of the box, the contents of unsaved tabs are lost when closed–or have I not found the right preference?
Rather than having a separate key binding to create a special type of tab that will be backed up periodically, as in a typical approach, it would be more useful if all closed unsaved tabs could be reopened as if there had been a hot exit on them individually.
With a preference, perhaps “hot_tab,” closing an unsaved tab would, when false, prompt to save; or, when true, hot exit and then close. File > Open Recent would then require a few minor adjustments to distinguish files and tabs.