Aha, don't worry, you invented plenty of new!
For every other view, the preview is displayed next to the name. The name of the file is never hidden, even partially, by the hover box (or "preview" as it is called in QTTabBar). I tried to capture all the different views on this
video.
What I prefer in the QTTabBar "preview" as well is that there is no flickering when hovering several files quickly. But maybe that's the dark background of the HoverBox that's causing this flickering effect?
Here are some screenshots of the QTTabBar "preview" options, if that can give you some ideas for other improvements (let me know if "advertising" another software here is not allowed).