The other path is to make everything a setting. Enable or disable counts next to XYZ, enable/disable time, etc.
For me, I don’t need to know and see all the time how many Active projects I have. But I do need to know it sometimes, like during a review. This, the count on collapse, solves my need and keeps the program looking clean.
Just one of those things to list in a FAQ: How to see counts of items on a list