It would be great if there was a way to create "wireless" node connections. This would make things look cleaner and a lot easier to grab things when it gets really hairy.
A possible solution that i would think would be doable, would be a hotkey and/or button making the node connections visible or not. This way, once you have things set up the way you would like, you no longer are dealing with a mess of connections.
Also maybe a way to selectively show node connections... for example, select a material and press a key to show only its connections.
Another thing that would be useful is when selecting a part with a picker, to have a hotkey to focus, snap or highlight where that node is located. This would be particularly useful when your scene is loaded with tons of materials since when you zoom out far enough, you can't see where it's located. (I have worked on projects with up to 150 materials and it was a nightmare)