I see, I wasn´t aware it developed further already.^^ … Removing the old menus is of course a good thing, since those are all double entries at the moment. I just thought it would be less work to upgrade them, instead of creating something new.
I see your point with the tabs and that things can be organized more economical in that menu. – I don´t really understand what you mean with the blocks of four and how that would avoid scrolling?
Would it not be an option to put each category into a rollout menu instead of its own tab? – Then just one tab might be sufficient for all material nodes. If you click the texture rollout, all textures appear as an alphabetical, inconized list. – To avoid scrolling you can close it with one click and open the shaders rollout instead, etc.