Hi there,
This is actually only a variation of something I've been requesting a lot recently (sorry if I'm annoying Matt with this).
How about a menu on the bar above the tiles which has something like the following options:
View (Top)
Tiles
Files (panes view)
Details
--------
View (Bottom)
Album thumbnails
List
Thumbnails
The selling point for me, is that you have control over the way everything is viewed underneath, all in one place. No need to customize your toolbar to put in the "album thumbnails" etc.
By extension we could have another drop down called "Sorting", again split into "top" and "bottom" with user definable presets. Having this as a seperate menu a)means less clicking b)logically seperates this from what kind of grouping you want to see, which are seperate things anyway.
Another option would be to make that bar area the new toolbar, and let us customise it to put in whatever buttons we like. (or let us create little drop down menus that we can fill with buttons).
Maybe something to consider for v12 at least?