This indeed is the pathological case of awful pattern of modal notifications stealing focus. Here the "notification" that connection has failed indeed destroys

This indeed is the pathological case of awful pattern of modal notifications stealing focus. Here the "notification" that connection has failed indeed destroys the whole page you have been working on (by replacing the content you care about, with some message about which you could care less). The browser (or application, or desktop environment) should be smart enough to allow enqueuing such notification and presenting it via some facility that respects users task and only shows the message via some non-focus-stealing approach. Such as growl. The bug means loss of user information. We as developers should be treating the user's information as sancrosanct. Such as never presenting question "Do you want to save?". Instead, save everything implicitly. Don't steal focus to ask for confirmation: instead offer unobtrusive undo. Allow user to delete when he wishes so. (Like Gmail does.) Never lose user-entered information. Never destroy user's flow. Never destroy user's view (workspace).