A sadly missed and critical feature I used in Omnifocus: project list overdue count. Next to the project names there are circles with numbers showing overdue items in the list. Or orange for items due soon. This made skimming for critical items across projects a breeze, and helpful to joggle my memory on things.

I know the today list or a next action smart list is a typical area but even still I can't gain context, which leads me to my second suggestion: I want to see the project as a column next to the tasks to quickly gain clarity. Knowing the project association helps me quickly glance at what is more important.