I don't know how valuable this would be for other plugin categories, but it could be extremely useful for themes so here's my pitch as it relates to that plugin type:
I propose that some feature attributes be added to the plugin meta data during upload that can then be searchable and sortable by the end user. For example, rather than typing in the description that you've made a responsive theme with cool features, etc... you check boxes that represent the features available in your theme.
This will cut down on the amount of forum threads "I'm looking for a theme that can ..." because they can search the DB for a theme with the features they need. Here's a list of rudimentary features that I can could be a good starting point:
- upload a custom logo
- custom CSS
- responsive (mobile friendly)
- Custom fonts (google or otherwise)
- Icon fonts (FA, etc...)
- Custom colors
I feel like I'm always leaning on Wordpress, but with thousands of themes available meta-data really makes searching wordpress.org for a theme easy. You can even search by color, etc...