Ok, the lite version of playing now sucks. It is only maximized when the tree is minimized, nothing else is active in the action view, AND already have it full of tracks, plus no visualization so THAT can't be done.
As before, the first tab would be as is, and users would not get lost since its there and would take a right click to add tabs at the top. Granted JRiver might not agree but from that usability perspective, it would work well for new and experienced users.
Yes, you can get to MOST things however they have various viewing problems with them as listed above in the first post as the reasoning for having tabs.
They are maximised, they don't go away at odd times, and the user does not have to click 2 -3 times to get back to that 'sweet spot'.
Due to the current state of the tree/action view I rarely use it at all since it too difficult to manage only what I want.
Tabs allow you to customize that AND allow the new users to only see ONE tab and not get confused.
On top of that I think there are plug ins that could take advantage of this that could create many possibilities not available with the current stickied tree view and changing large view which I would actually prefer not to change from my standard library browser and would rather change things with tabs on the left since that is much smaller and prevents from having to switch views and then hit the back and forward buttons.
The whole point is that it is customisable beyond the first tab. It doesn't have to be anything, it doesn't have to be play lists, it could simply be on thing from the action window that is always stickied because of how YOU use MC not how JRiver thinks you use it which for them, the current view is obviously intended for new users. NOt that pro users don't use it or don't like it but myself and others find it not as useful since we just want to browse and play. Tabs would give us other functionality that could be stickied.