This just struck me. I have a global hotkey set to activate / hide foobar. Why not make the availability to focus on an existing panel within ui_columns?
Perhaps:
[main] Components/Columns UI/Focus Albumlist
..one could replace Albumlist with whatever panel currently being displayed.
(this kid is making the move towards mouseless navigation)
I know I can activate foobar and simply tab until I see albumlist highlight something; again, this is a "Why not?" question, doesn't seem like something that would cause bloat.