"Friends online" essentially unusable with current update

With the May 2024 mobile update, the swipe behavior I preferred is partially back, but changes remain that reduce its function, making this compromise worse as a whole.

Specifically… how am I supposed to know which of my friends are online? I can only see one or two icons in the tiny rectangle they've been jammed into, even assuming (incorrectly) that I can recognize everyone on my friends list by their icon alone. And it's certainly not front-loaded with the people I talk to the most, or even sorted alphabetically.

Am I meant to scroll through all of them in the tiny box every time to check? Or scroll down on my profile to view “Your Friends” (which isn't immediately visible on my screen btw—fine for a seldom-used logistical tool but not for daily use) and keep in my head which have a colored icon and which don't?

As it is, the little box looks intrusive, as if it's an advertisement or something, and clutters the design. I'm genuinely confused as to why, if you're going to walk the new design back partway but not all the way, the friends online weren't moved to a dedicated tab where you can scroll vertically and display names.

I'm also perturbed that this change was not better communicated to users. For me it was totally out of the blue.