Hi Marc,
I've thought about the idea of selecting an object when selecting its node and vice versa, but the way it works now is a little more flexible, allowing differing selections in each. There are some things you may not be aware of that make working with objects a bit easier.
First off, as njeneb mentions, the bounding boxes etc. of objects selected in the 3D preview turn yellow when they're selected. If appropriate their transform handles are also made visible.
To easily select an object or shader in the 3D preview you can context click in it and then choose the object from the Select Object or Shader submenu.
To easily get to the params for the selected object or shader you can press opt-return (Mac) or alt-enter (Windows) to open the param view in a floating window.
If you want to see the selected object or shader in the 3D preview then context click and choose Selected item from the Centre on Object or Shader submenu.
Regards,
Jo
