I see, got it.
Telegraphing modes is better with the overlapping, I think, and quick switching is another problem (I’d love to have hotkeys to force stroke/fill instead of toggling them). But still currently the Fill/Stroke buttons are the most large ones in the UI — in the two-column toolbar, rather than in Swatches/Color :)
While Swatches indeed has more space in the top part, the Color does not... these have to be consistent. Still appreciate the comment and the time.

Egor, I am separating the stroke/fill icons so that there is a larger target for the mouse to hit it and select. when they overlap, the space is too tiny to click it quickly. I am always working as fast as I possibly can with these tools, so the fewer or easier clicks the better. And, I don't suggest getting rid of the color panel - to me, that is the advanced color mode and should offer much more control if I need it. And yes, you would need to make the highlight on the one selected (fill vs stroke) more prominent.

Still not sure why having the Fill icon next to Stroke is beneficial :)
Ai paradigm still is using one of two focused, so making them displayed like this would only make it harder to see which one is active...
But perhaps you might be interested in this request instead... actually, you already upvoted it :)
Absolute mode that always sets a fill a single click and stroke with the Alt+click/right click — http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/44104935
CorelDRAW-style. Am I getting it right, and 'separating' you suggest is aimed to allow to apply a color to a fill or a stroke faster, without flipping the mode first?

Anne, InDesign has a different Swatches panel, very similar to the one you offer (https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/swatches.html)... Consistency and interoperability is a goal I know Ai team pursues, but swatches in InD just work a bit differently — you can’t have a color applied to anything on canvas, without getting a swatch automatically. So InDesign never had a need to have a separate Color panel, while in Ai you can have a color used that is NOT a swatch — and it won’t exactly work with this approach.

Anyway, there are many separate requests to have them (or other panels) combined, one way or another:
1. Merge some features of Color window into Swatches window — http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/50330058 (2 vote, and this is exactly like your idea)
2. Combine Separations Preview & Color palette — http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/38885287 (2 votes)
3. Combine the swatches and gradients panel — http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/34511734 (2 votes)
A general solution is to group panels... Adding Color to Swatches give a very similar thing: a tint for the selected global/spot color (tinting is not transparency) and a list of swatches below. Sure it’s taller :) but grouping allows to have any setup.

Yes! Anne, let’s do this.

This is a fundamental usage of Illustrator and very important to change in my opinion. I have attached a mockup of how I want the fill and stroke icons to be separated for easier selection in the swatches panel. I also include the display of more info about the color selected and its transparency right there, rather than having to open also the colors panel. I desperately want this.

Not sure if I get the question.
This selector indicates which of two main aspects of vector art is currently active: when the stroke chip is on top — Illustrator applies color to strokes; when the fill one is above the stroke — the color gets applied to fills.

The model you are referring too, when both are just separate chips and none of them are considered active, has been implemented in the iPad and upcoming Web versions of Illustrator — and while it made some users quite happy, some others found it irritating, since they now have the only way to change the color — via directly editing this color chip, while in desktop Ai you can use whichever method to apply the color to the active attribute.

This can’t be changed in Ai at the moment, and no plans I know about are planned. But please tell more about it from your perspective — why do you thing it’s not OK, how do you envision working with fills and strokes, if none is considered active, what is your other experience with other apps which solve the same problem?

Also, you might want to vote for a request for this alternative method for assigning attributes, used in other vector apps: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests/suggestions/44104935-absolute-mode-that-always-sets-a-fill-a-single-cli
This, however, won’t change the current model, but will just allow to ignore the active status, when needed.