You said: "The pop-up index is only by family name (with an option to use married names and a few different ways of handling AKA."
No, the pop-up index will sort by any of the columns. Click on the column header. However, that sort only lasts for the time that pop-up screen is open. If you close it and re-open it, it goes back to last name alpha.
You said: "I like the pop-up index because you can see all 3 dates & the spouse."
Yes, I like that, too. But, another reason equal to that is that you don't have to leave the Person tab to get to it. You do have to leave the person tab to get back to the regular index that shows birth order as a secondary sort and will list all 65 William Smiths in birth order. The pop-up shows a few in birth order and a whole bunch that aren't in any real order at all that I can see.