The functionality of an automatic save of your last view (in your case the list view) is not difficult to implement. I'll carry that through in (hopefully) the coming release...

Concerning your suggestion to show the newest files on top of the list. Unfortunately there is here no general preference on the sorting. But I can tell you that we are thinking of creating a widgets-first-page in the 5.0 release. This would enable you to create your own widgets with your preferred content.