In v8, we were using unpublished categories to manage our Featured Items display as well as to manage discount groupings - so a coupon would be restricted to a category. Because the category is administrative, and not useful to most customers, we left these categories unpublished.
In v9, it seems that if we do not publish a category, a product cannot be mapped to it. Is this correct? If so, what is the new recommended method to manage featured items and coupons that don't map to published categories?