Michael,
Just some thoughts as grist for your dev mill.
It occurs that the 'Hide' button is currently under-employed, but necessary.
Possably, it could trigger a pop-up box that offered naming, grouping, selection by name or group toggling visability, all the way to a complete heirachy, visability editor. Structure that how you choose, it offers an interface friendly (meets your expressed UI design preferences) possable approach to some of the 'wants' expressed on the forum, layers/groups, object naming, flexability in visability etc.
At the least, input for your creative process.
Cheers
Spinner