Okay, I think the discussion is constantly circling back to precisely the same arguments, and it’s just not useful any more, except for venting.
The issue is being worked on for GNOME 44 alongside more changes to the icon view:
And if the changes aren’t reading in time for GNOME 44, they’ll be delayed to GNOME 45, and so on, and so forth. Such is the cycle of every GNOME application.
Thanks everyone for your feedback: it’s been very helpful, and it has been taken into consideration for future changes.