Touching the web.config refers to making a change and then saving the file.  In this context, just add a line break somewhere and save.  The logic changed referred to here could be done in many places.  You could put this logic in a module, or the skin ASCX itself.  However, the fix mentioned in the gemini issue I posted, you would need to change the DNN core and rebuild the DNN assembly (not recommended).  I would suggest doing this in your skin or module, but you would need to redirect back to the same page after calling the reload of the tab cache.

Changes to the web.config to fix the menu items usually just consist of adding a line break somewhere, or a new space, then saving the file. This forces the app to restart

Wow.  I was under the impression that this was supposed to be fixed in 4.7+ versions.  D'oh!