Hi there,
Thanks for using our plugins, I’m happy to help and provide some clarification!
Unfortunately, at this time, it’s not a built in option to change the view in this way (which you seem to know) but this change could be made with some customization. I recommend checking out the following resources if you’d like to try making these changes yourself or to find someone to help out with this:
Themer’s Guide (Help for making the changes yourself)
Customization Guide (Help finding help with making custom changes)
Also, off the top of my head, your ideas seem like the quickest way to accomplish this, though I’m sure with the help of a developer, you could create something a bit more elegant, so it might be worth the investment. 🙂
Best,
Shelby 🙂