I understand it might be rather resource expensive but seems now the editors
have the ability to approve/disapprove an item from the items list view but the
PreSaveItem and PostSaveItem events aren't called. But it might be needed that
on disapproving an item, some actions need to be done (like disapproving
'connected' items from another LISE instance).

Just for your consideration.

Another work around could be to introduce an option to disallow this action from
the list view and only allow it from the edit item tab. This way a apply/submit
is enforced.