The admin link will currently show for anyone with privileges to see the Applications. This is slated to change, while Applications will simply be added to the main menu, and removed from the Admin menu. As you stated though, they won't have access to do anything but view applications.
Has there been any changes to this yet? I have noticed that it still appears in the menu for everyone. I would like to have that only those of certain rank and above would have access to seeing this.