I think I've changed my mind on mine. I want the ability to make lower-quality items. It's a bitch and a half to make low-rent rooms for your poorer dwarves when ALL NINE OF YOUR MASONS ARE LEGENDARY.
Yes, I have nine masons for building projects, and yes, all nine are legendary, largely due to said building projects.
I'd like the ability to mass-select in lists.
That way I could highlight a bunch of dwarves at once and then activate them, or a bunch of <narrow iron low boots> and then melt them. It'd be especially handy with the trading screen, so I don't have to go through all the left-over goblin clothing one by one, hitting enter each time, to get rid of all the useless junk my siegers leave behind for me.
You can do so with the stocks screen, and stockpiles can help speed up the selection process for trading.
From the stocks screen, you can designate all items of a certain material and type for melting all at once. So if all your soldiers are wearing greaves, for example, you can go and mass-designate all the leggings on the stocks screen for melting. It doesn't really help much for stuff that both goblins and your dwarves use (most likely low boots), but it helps with armor, weapons, and ammunition.
For the "useless junk", you can set up Finished Goods stockpiles that only accept head/hand/leg/footwear and "armor" made of silk, cloth, and leather. You'll still have a bunch of stuff to designate for trading, but you'll be doing it by the 25-item binful instead of one (narrow cave spider silk codpiece) at a time.
These aren't perfect substitutes for what you say you want, but they'll work as stopgaps in the meantime