Several people, including myself, have been campaigning for the return of the "All" button ever since we first noticed it missing. As I understand it, it was removed so that people who didn't need it did not have to "jump over" it (which of course always struck me as a pretty minor issue to begin with.) It seems to me that a lot more was lost by it's removal than was gained.
One solution would be to offer this as an option, but JR does not want to get into an "option overload" situation, which is understandable. If it's not offered as an option, however, I still think that the gains from including an "All" button far outweigh the losses. The only downside for people who don't need it is that they have to scroll over a SINGLE extra item, which just doesn't seem like a strong enough reason to take it away from those of us who DO use it.
Thanks for posting,
Larry