Combine Catalog View and Catalog Pane
Interesting idea. I'm curious how you envision it working. Like with Catalog View I have Preview so that I can look at metadata, preview datasets (and even preview entire maps from the project), manage styles, import, export, edit metadata, etc. etc.
So when you need to do all of the above, you want full view with preview, all the capabilities, but then you might want to dock the "unified Catalog" as a pane? What happens then? If you select something when in "pane mode" do you expect all the stuff as seen above? Where would you expect to see things like preview? Or edit metadata if you are working in a map with "unified Catalog pane mode"? Or the vision is for something totally new that doesn't use a view or a pane?
Good example Kory,
How about being able to toggle or set up how you want your Catalog to work? I never preview anything but I'm sure others do. I think Metadata could be it's own window (and I never create metadata and RARELY look at it). Maybe if you want to access Metadata you click on it in the ribbon and that opens a pane/window to work with it? Same with managing styles. (Personally I sort of miss the Style Manager but it was also clunky. I think styles would almost be better handled in an explorer-like interface and like metadata - a pane/window would open when you activate the ribbon for Styles. BTW this might make it easier to add already requested features like adding styles to PRO universally and not just at the project level....)
I'm by no means a UI expert 
but I do use PRO in the way I use it and right now for me, it feels clunky to have a View and a Pane and then have each of them sort of doing some of the things that were all accomplished in Catalog. I love the idea that Catalog is integrated - but Catalog did a lot of things!
Some of it is just a matter of learning the new ropes but one specific example I can give you that feels clunky to me is when I want to add a map to a new and empty layout I have to view the Catalog Pane and drag it over. I feel like that should be possible in catalog view as well (Dragging and dropping).
If both entities cannot be combined because of the examples you gave or even more examples that folks who are experts in UI design provide - maybe allowing users to do things in BOTH Pane and View (where possible), would be a better UI?
Ultimately this idea stemmed from a desire to make this migration into PRO workflows feel more natural to all of the users entrenched in ArcMap and ArcCatalog. Having an integrated Catalog is great, but having Pane and View, each doing some of what Catalog did almost feels like a step side-ways and backwards. (Speaking as a lone user that has sort of jumped into the deep end with Pro )
"I simply want to open the GDB and delete a featureclass and that functionality is hidden..."
Catalog View:
Catalog Pane:
Another perfectly functioning tool ruined in Pro. When will it end, why did it ever start? Who thought it up? The 'Geography' tab doesn't even work properly, its just says "Metadata is unavailable for this item" even if its looking at say a FC or a JPG (not selected in this screen shot). Its click after unnecessary click, just to get to something was worked perfectly well and intuitively before.
