Verbosity WAS activated in all cases.
If you use the celURL's (in particular the third one) you will see precisely what was selected in each case. The problem is with the third case, when nothing is selected except empty space.
...there's no actual object selected ...
... however there IS a red marker displayed as shown in the screenshot. This marker always seems to appear in the same position regardless of where I click.
This is a very trivial issue, but if you really would like to debug it, I would suggest you try it in 1.4.1 first, in order to replicate it (as it may already be fixed in 1.5.x...
Firstly, use the first URL above, then secondly, click on anywhere that there isn't an object. If you've got markers enabled you should see the red marker appear, but nothing is actually selected where the red marker is.
If you click on a star, it will be selected and marked, however if you click on "empty space" then nothing will be selected, yet this rogue marker will be displayed. (I don't believe there actually
is an invisible object there as you may have inferred from my first post, but there is the "appearance" of an object because of the marker.) ie. the problem's in the marking, not in the selection.
I hope that's clear enough for you.