@julian This was ~4 years ago but I asked someone on the team (I forget who) if it would be a welcome PR and I was told that it probably wouldn't be, so I didn't make the PR.
Of course that was a long time ago! Also of note, this was completely and totally a hack and I don't think my actual implementation is what I would want to put upstream at this point. What's more interesting is that it hasn't been the cause of any UI concerns; basically what you postulate above, that the "hide long content behind a cut" functionality pretty much solves the problem, is true.