I just upgraded to 8.2 from an apparently much older version. The mail view used to have multiple lines per message, with plenty of space for each line (sender, subject). Now, I see a grid of columns with, well, not enough space for any of them.
I’ve never used earlier versions with that layout… I don’t see any way to come close to what you want the display to look like… thus will let other volunteers try to help, if they can.