Content Brower

Blender should have a content browser panel that can exist in the viewport. It would display things such as materials and textures. Materials could be dragged from the content browser and onto an object into the scene and it would be put on that object. You could also create assets from the content browser. Materials by default wouldn't be deleted if they were attached to an object and you closed the program, they would be locked.

This is an industry standard method for 3D and something along the lines of what I said should eventually make its way into Blender, at least in my opinion. This would also be useful when utilizing other programs such as substance designer since you can much more easily use the external materials.