Thought the torches had to be on your bar for that to work. Or at least it used to. Cool to see it work directly from any inventory slot.Something that has changed my life.
Right clicking with a TiCo Pickaxe (Not sure if works with vanilla, haven't tested yet) places a torch if you have one in your inventory.
The Gravisuite "Advanced Diamond Drill" has the exact same feature of placing torches from any inventory slot on rightclick(in addition to the big hole mode that makes it function as a Hammer/Excavator(it mines dirt as well as stone by default)). Really handy for freeing up a quickslot for other things/cut down on item juggling.