My alias is : /l

that makes me look in all directions as well. I know the order and
everything, but if I had a line of text saying "You look north," etc,
then I could highlight and keep things much easier to keep track of.

For scan, what you propose does have big advantages in that I don't need to scroll back to determine what direction the creature at the top of my screen are in.

However, it also has disadvantages in some senses, because it adds lines of text and therefore will force you to scroll back in some cases where you otherwise would not have.

My 'scan' upgrade adds no new lines, it only alters one that has always
been there.

Remember, currently when you scan you'll see...

You scan east.
***Range 1***
So and so is here, mooning you.

My idea only changes the "range line"..

You scan east.
***EAST: Range 1***
So and so is here, mooning you.

See how that would help a ton? Even if you couldn't highlight stuff
in your client, you'd still have a big, glaring EAST on your
screen.

Bizarro I'm helping!