I think it would be awesome if we could expand the timeline tools.
So click the master bone and it expands downward to show each parent bone and children (with corresponding names) from that. A line for each bone would highlight when selected from the side. Toggle each line to go to graph.
Like Vern said Animation Master has a pretty good time line system as do other 3D apps.
With points this could be very cumbersome I know, but maybe a similar system for grouped points? Once again AM has done this very well.
One thing though, I'd love to be able to get to keyframes that belong to other layers and be able to shift whole bunches of movement together.
This was one of the first and and things that I hated about the time line, I know that's harsh, sorry but it's a 'bone ' of contention for me.
