People I've watched using new-to-them, evil-graphic-designer-designed sites (not many, I admit) first run the mouse over the page to figure out what's clickable (the pointer turns into a hand).
Once they find one clickable link, they extrapolate the style (highlighted, hand, colour emphasis, whatever) of that link to the rest of the site.
What you're doing is laying two styles (underlined no highlight mouse hand, no underline no highlight mouse hand) onto the same action.
The difference between "important" and "non-important" is opaque to your users (it's a value in your head, not theirs), so from their point of view your just doing it to be a pain in the ass, and violate Rule Number One.
People are used to their links coming in all kinds of styles these days - they're not used to multiple styles within the same site. Pick one you like, and stick with it, IMO.
Comment
People I've watched using new-to-them, evil-graphic-designer-designed sites (not many, I admit) first run the mouse over the page to figure out what's clickable (the pointer turns into a hand).
Once they find one clickable link, they extrapolate the style (highlighted, hand, colour emphasis, whatever) of that link to the rest of the site.
What you're doing is laying two styles (underlined no highlight mouse hand, no underline no highlight mouse hand) onto the same action.
The difference between "important" and "non-important" is opaque to your users (it's a value in your head, not theirs), so from their point of view your just doing it to be a pain in the ass, and violate Rule Number One.
People are used to their links coming in all kinds of styles these days - they're not used to multiple styles within the same site. Pick one you like, and stick with it, IMO.
Replies
Point taken. Yes, it might be inconsistent. I'll keep your opinion in mind and might change with time.