Hi @NeilM,
thank you for the feedback on this. I recommend adding this feature request to our feedback portal: https://feedback.mongodb.com/forums/929236-mongodb-for-vs-code.
There is, however a workaround for what you are trying to do. It sounds like your goal is to quickly open a new shell instance connected to the server/cluster the extension is currently connected to. A command for that is available in the command palette:
That means you can assign a keyboard shortcut to it and every time you use that shortcut, you’ll get a new shell instance.
I am curious: what do you do with multiple shell instances connected to the same cluster?
And yes, you are right. We have been pretty quiet on enhancements. We will probably do a bugfix release soon and probably a bigger one in a month or so.