24 icons versus 8 icons much better on a new tab

A new Android tab contains at most 8 icons on two lines. Under these 2 lines there is a large blank space and I wonder why this space isn’t occupable with additional lines of icons. I guess there is 4 lines free. I’d appreciated to have more icons under my finger to tap speedly. 24 icons versus 8 icons much better for me.
Other option would be a sweep of the two lines, left and right.
Also icons add/move would be even great.