Why is the Edit View link not appearing in Panels?
I discovered the answer by accident yesterday. When adding a Views block to a Panels pane, Panels will ask you if you want the "Master" or "Block" display. I'm not sure there's a difference in the output at all, but if you select the "Block" display, the contextual cogwheel "Edit View" link will not show up.  If you select "Master", it will.  Unfortunately, you can't change the display once it has been added, so you need to remove the "Block" display and re-add it, selecting the "Master" display.  This could cause you to have to redo some work, if you had spent any time configuring things already.