Feature Request: More Progress Bars

I have had to do a lot of work on a big(gish) catalog, including importing and exporting catalogs. Sometimes several hours of process time on an 8 core processor. It is frequently impossible to tell what is happening in the background and it appears to hang, especially during preparation prior to activities window showing or the progress wheel appearing. Checking Task Manager shows processes are running but not what, how much progress is being made, or whether it is doing anything useful.

Please.