Well... IMHO the status bar layer stuff is very good and useful. I'm
using it all the time, and I'm the guy who coded up the actual layers
dialog. It actually gives good status info on the layers of items as
you select them. Thus I think it's still very appropriate for the
status bar.
After a second thought, I must agree with you! For a full usefulness all we
need there is "hide everything but active layer" button.