I have attempted to rewrite the ugliest bit of code left in Elgg (https://github.com/Elgg/Elgg/pull/9085), but it remains a pain point due to scalability issues. 

So, how much noise will there be if we decide to kill the friendspicker in favor of an autocomplete? Subsequently, each friend collection get it's own page with a paginated list of users with an option to Remove from collection. Each friend collection gets a separate Add members form with an autocomplete. We can add a lightbox interface to add a user to a collection from the user hover menu.

Here is a poll for you:

1. I like this approach - kill the friendspicker
2. I like ugly code - keep the friendspicker
3. I have a better idea - what is it?
4. Drop support for editable friends collections altogether?!