A tight grid beats getting lost in barely two dozen tabs at a time, scrolling horizontally and having no idea where it begins or ends. You'd need a thousand tabs in one window to take up even 500px vertically.
Gimme big tabs that look like buttons on a child's ipad app. I also want the tab matrix enabled and always visible on mobile. Finally, they must make various squeaking/honking/chirping noises when I select them and animal noises when left inactive for too long.