Yes, a "Participants list" block in the same style as the "Online Users" block might be useful for some people with small courses. I understand there will soon be a Moodle repository where users can contribute new blocks, course formats, modules, themes, filters, and all the other things one can plug into Moodle. I think lots of users will then contribute such things.
Courses and course formats
New course format "People"
This discussion has been locked so you can no longer reply to it.