The pop-up, however, still works any time. Drag and drop also works with Extensions off, by the way. After you set up your Apps folder as a tab, you can also do the same for the extra Utilities, Games and other folders if you'd like. You don't really need to create a tab folder for Utilities and Games as you won't be drag and drop file converting to those programs. But you might want to tab them just to see if you find them handy.
Tabs come in handy for more than just launchers.
I tab any folder that contains a project I am actively working on. Notice the MacCentral tab in my screen shot. It contains my columns, your letters, research, and the million dollar contract I signed to do this column. Next is my ComputerUser newspaper column folder, and is a book folder. The column folders stay tabbed.