The ability to move status and notifications/system tray to the favorite area

would be nice to be able to swap the status and notifications/system tray top the favorites area in the start menu instead of icons to have less things on the task bar

In the “Configure System Tray” settings dialog you could go and set every application to “Show only in popup”, so you would end up with only the popup-opener icon, which would be as small as the tray can get.
I think in general it would be possible for an application launcher to include other plasma widgets (for example for news or weather?), but I don’t know if any currently exist. I also think moving the system tray in there in particular is a pretty niche use-case.

to me it would be nicer to be able to just hit the meta button to open the app launcher be able to click on it there rather than having to go down into the corner and click on the arrow. plus it would clean up the task bar not having to have so much on it. it could just be another tab like favorites or all applications

to me it would still be in a hidden drop down menu easier to access but the press of a keyboard button better workflow less clutter on the main desk top separates it from other task bar/ windows style while not being to outside the field of range

Well, you can at least also add a custom shortcut for the current tray widget, for example meta+y, if that helps.