Not that this is revolutionary or anything, but I’ve seen some nice results by spacing links horizontally separated by tabs and/or pipes if I remember correctly. I think this was done by @nickmilo in his LYT kit. I meant to experiment with this and am happy to see your post. I usually use hierarchical lists but also need a change of scenery.
On some of my lists, instead of a link, I transclude a block from the top of the linked note.
For example, for People, Orgs, Projects, and Concepts I want include in a glossary, then after the note title and a tag or two, I include a paragraph that summarizes the thing. A person note for [[Santa Claus]] might look like this:
**Santa Claus** Jolly old elf I met at the mall when I was 4. Visits every Christmas while he's on his way to give toys to all the boys and girls. ^1
When I build the list, I include that block ![[Santa Claus#^1]], and it looks like this:
(I use ^1, so I don’t have to look for the block I want to include, I can just find the note and hit ^1, et voilà! If a note has a summary block, then it’s always ^1.)
This is great, thank you! I had seen LYT mentioned and am now going through the following resource as it feels like a fantastic approach to deriving maximum benefit from obsidian