I get many hundreds of emails a day. I need to glance quickly at the first paragraph or so of an email.
Can't do that, because the top of the reading pane is 100% NOISE (reading pane at bottom). It's an oversize repeat of what is in the email list, and, on smaller screens, blocks 100% of the email message. If I want to see a picture, and all the other extras, I can open the email. In 99.9% of all my emails, the picture is a placeholder anyways.
And if you click on it to try and scroll it, you mostly get the empty placeholder social crap to pop up, causing even less efficiency, as you try to get it closed. Seems to be designed for light, casual use, not for IT professionals.
So, can the layout be edited? Nothing that I can find so far.
Rick Hantz