Hi bentraje,
Thanks for the illustration.
This is the first time I get this question. Typically, a scene with a lot of materials is organized with the Layer option. In this way, any material group (e.g., for an object or group of objects) can have its own space, without using the smallest icon size.
There is no mentioning in the manual of the Columnar View. I post this link since it has the Layer options as well in it.
https://help.maxon.net/us/#5810
The best way to get there is to create a suggestion here:
https://www.maxon.net/en-us/support/suggestions/
All the best