4. This was widely discussed in several threads, and I explained not only the design decisions but also the whole concept decision why there will be not a wider area there, and so on. So, again as I said before: if you don't mind... use "it would be nice if.." and not "should". We are doing our best following our concept / goal for the application. It's unfortunately impossible to please everyone, and I will personally not change the plans I have for it for now.
*ps: i hope you don't take my words as rudeness, in the opposite we are all searching for a nice user experiences, so if we cannot fulfill it we for sure give alternative ways to do it.