I have been using v1.0.0-beta.13 and both using the menus and $state.go both work fine.
When I switched to nightly,
Menus still worked, but anytime I used code with $state.go to switch my menu button vanished.
This is how I define my nav bar (removed < from each line so they show up)
ion-nav-bar class=“bar-dark”>
ion-nav-buttons side=“left”>
button menu-toggle=“left” class=“button button-icon icon ion-navicon”>
/ion-nav-buttons>
ion-nav-buttons side=“right”>
button class=“button button-icon icon ion-help-circled” ng-click=“changeState(‘app.help’)”>Help
/ion-nav-buttons>
/ion-nav-bar>
Only the left icon vanishes, the right one and the title remains.
changeState manages some internal stuff and then performs $state.go and $ionicSideMenuDelegate.toggleLeft(false);