auto-package-update.el VS dired-hacks

beacon which-key auto-package-update dired-hacks helm

By the way, I personally use auto-package-autoupdate to autoremove old package when updating old packages. It has worked great for me. It uses package.el under the hood, so it shouldn't be a problem to package.el.

I have used Clemeras dired-git-info for a while, but it does not work well with my dired-auto-readme and dired-subtree from dired-hacks due to use of overlays.

beacon which-key auto-package-update dired-hacks helm

As an alternative to do stuff manually as Prot does, you can also take a look at dired-hacks by Goljer, a.k.a Fuco, in particular dired-subtree and dired-filter. Dired-subtree let's you "toggle" directory listings displayed inline, similar as how other file managers expand/collapse directories in "list-mode". If you prefer using Dired interactively, that one is a game changer in my opinion. I have 'dired-subtree-toggle' on a tab key, so I can just quickly press tab to "expand/collapse" a folder. it is not same as pressing 'i' in Dired and having content of a directory inserted "below", but in my opinion, I never find the built-in Dired version very appealing. Subtree-toggle also skips extra headers for inserted directories, and I can still do all dired operations on directories as if they were inserted with built-in method that Prot demonstrates. I have also used dired-subtree-toggle to make three small functions on top of it to expand entire directory tree one folder at a time, all at once and to collapse them.

On a similar note, dired-ranger has some awesome copy/paste/move functions.

I personally use just Dired, styled with some addons and a simple script where I use dired-subtree to expand/fold subdirectories one level at the time. You can use dired-subtree to expand one directory at a time.

dired-subtree (from dired-hacks) - hit tab on a directory and expand/fold the subtree;

If you are using dired-hacks, it comes with something called dired-subtree.