Personally I wouldn't mind having icons appear in certain column headers - especially "Name", which has a lot of "waste space" which is always there...
At least 5 or 6 icons in the toolbars above the column headers are related to the "Name" column - it would be my instant pleasure to move them to the name header and move some other buttons to these toolbars - either as icons or as just labels. Imagine something like this:
I also added a button to the "Created" and "Modified" column headers (in the screenshot). Those would be buttons that do something specific for those columns (e.g. extra options related to those dates). I wouldn't mind if such a button pushes the name ("Created", "Modified") to the right and let some text disapppear, or if it displays over the name at the end. It is the logic of its placement that I would appreciate (besides generating extra toolbar space). So it's not only that, as a user of a moderately sized laptop, I'm always keen on my screen space - it's also that those buttons would be located exactly where the action is. And by using "tri-buttons" for instance, a single button can do different things - related to that column.
This is not necessarily a blunt change request - the added value may be low for most people, but who knows, it might incite some creative thought.