Right now, by default the Places panel shows a small number of user places, and a large number of Virtual places of questionable utility (e.g. the 4 {nav Search For} entries, 4 {nav Recently Saved} entries, and the redundant {nav Root} entry). Overall the signal-to-noise ratio is low, and usability could be better.
Let's consider the following changes, roughly in this order:
[x] Remove the {nav Recently Saved > This Month} and {nav Recently Saved > Last Month} entries by default; they're of questionable utility to feature so prominently, and the functionality is available from the {nav Find} panel anyway. D11767
[x] Fix a bug causing the Information Panel to not display previews for folders added to the Places panel: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=392621: D11894
[x] Add at least {nav Desktop} and {nav Downloads} to the default Places section, in a nod to real-world user workflows (see D10245#201638): D11768
[x] Add {nav Documents} to the default Places section: D16852
[x] Use a better icon for {nav Network}: D15931
[x] Generally improve the visual presentation of disks: T9740
[x] Make it obvious which disk in the {nav Devices} section corresponds to {nav /}: D16653
[x] Remove {nav Root} from the Places section; it's redundant, and that location can always be accessed from a disk in the {nav Devices} section, which is visible by default: D15739
[] Re-order sections so the {nav Removable Devices} section is closer to the top than the bottom
[] Maybe do the same for the {nav Devices} section too?
[] Implement collapsible Places panel sections: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=389803
[] Make {nav Search For} entries collapsed by default (i.e. available and accessible, but with the entries invisible until the header is expanded)
[x] Improve or change the {nav Recently Saved} items or the `recentdocuments:/` KIO slave to exclude non-files: D14893
[] Improve the KRecentDocuments system to notice files that were recently opened and created by non-KDE programs
[] Add a {nav Recently Used} item: D7446
[x] Add a {nav Tags} section, and put it at the very bottom (maybe even collapsed by default): D7700
[] Implement section re-ordering: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=309621
[] Give unmountable external disks a visible eject button: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=154499
[] Add ability to create splitters/separators between places: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=169751
[x] Implement «Show All Entries» for places in the Panels submenu: D16767
Thoughts?