Some years ago I brought up the topic of using very large screens:
  https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2016-10/msg00859.html

More recently I brought up that topic again:
  https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2020-09/msg01057.html

Lately, using mini-frame, I have realized a very liveable approximation
of what I had in mind.  While normally I work with a maximized emacs
frame, I attach here pictures of a much smaller frame, intended to give
a sense of my current mini-buffer experience.

A notable feature of my current implementation is that I position the
minibuffer over the frame's title bar.  Positioned thus, a one line mini-
buffer does not obscure any window content.  The downside is that,
in order to position the popped up mini-buffer frame outside of the
selected frame's native boundaries, that popped up frame must be
made parentless.  That, in turn, has some rough edges.

Were I able to position the mode-line at the top of each window (an
arrangement whose virtues on a large screen I have argued  before)
then I would make my selected frame the parent of the popped up
mini-buffer.  The mini-buffer would have to remain within my frame's
native boundaries.  But that would be acceptable because, with the
mode-line at the top of each window, it would be one or more mode-
lines that got hidden, rather than any actual buffer text.

Which brings me to my ask: Would it be possible, optionally, to draw
the mode-line at the top of each window?

/john