I never found that to be a problem. In fact, I find the thumbnails distracting. But I can see it being a problem for others.
The rare occasion I work with image files, I just open it to identify, if I haven’t already named it properly.
It also helps that most of my workflows are not image-heavy.
Given it is a CPU is limiting the parsing of the file, I wonder how a GPU-based editor like Zed would handle it.
Been wanting to test out the editor ever since it was partially open sourced but I am too lazy to get around doing it