The only thing my proposed change would do is make it so that you don't always get them, every time you view your message. You'd only get them when you elect to see them. Once you're actually playing the character, this is never more than two clicks away. Which is, at the absolute most, one more click than it takes to get them now. I really don't get how you'd define two clicks as "having to go digging", when you'd have to expend one of those clicks anyway.
If it is possible to do it via an option, then that sounds excellent. I'm always in favor of more ways for people to personalize the interface to work better for their preferred play style.
Again, I am of the same opinion as Indirik, and also fail to see how the requested change would make anyone dig through old messages. There's a button one can click to display marked messages.
