Thomthom:
If an edge loop selection terminates at a 3 or 5 junction, do you see this as terminating the selection or retaining the selection up to the junction? And thereafter the selection is made edge by edge, adding to the path, or restarting the loop selection without losing what has been selected before. Just some thoughts.
How many people model like this, you ask. Because I have some limited experience with Blender, I often think in terms of that workflow (wishing that Sketchup had that versatility) as I model in SU.
In my opinion, this loop selection capability (and your current Selection Toys) is at least as important as the Point Merger tool recently developed and Select only Visible.
Somewhere out there is the Grand Unified Modeling Program....or GUMP for short. (edit: add small chuckle)