This is something I 100% agree with you and we’ve been reporting for a while now. The view mode of Penpot and the prototype mode needs refinement. As of right now, is the worst part of the whole Penpot experience, but it isn’t broken (that’s why I think Penpot devs are not actively working on this, but maybe they are, idk).
About the boards showing up in view mode when you link interactions to them, I think that is a bug, because before v2.0 I’ve never noticed such behavior. Maybe this is something that can be fixed quick.
Here some previous discussions for you to read if you are interested:
