Even if you need the list, you don't need it constantly, only when you need to recap, where you could just hit `SPC b b` and get the list of buffers to see all

Even if you need the list, you don't need it constantly, only when you need to recap, where you could just hit `SPC b b` and get the list of buffers to see all the "tabs" you need, furthermore, that can show you way more information than what a single line of tabs could. Another thing to consider, how often do you need to look at the buffers, but not change to another buffer?