Comment # 1 on bug 1004625 from Dominique Leuenberger

It is my believe that this bug has long been fixed - although likely by
accident or as a side effect of another bug.

NM=-applet is used by all kind of DEs nowadays. And if this were still an
issue, many more issues would be reported (also, NM-applet has been upgraded
multiple times since this bug was opened)