I've been messing, and there's now the option to filter your characters. Any character that matches the typed string anywhere in its name will show up (not necessarily at the start of the name). Alphabetical/Last-login order will be respected.
On a bright note, i've made the commitment to try and use the changelog from now on!
On a side -slightly darker- note: I no longer experience the resource crashes related to birch trees, yet I did not do anything consciously to get rid of them (except maybe update my java - AGAIN). Could some of the people that posted on it earlier contact me if they still have issues?