> I believe types can specify which columns to display by default;

Indeed, the default view (table/list/custom) can be specified, and for the view the default properties can be specified.

Consider how 'ls' produces a sequence of FileSystemInfo objects (when run against a disk file system). The view specifies that the list be grouped by "parent".

On the terminal this gives a nice list a la:

        Directory: C:\Dell\Drivers\T7MFF\PhysX\files\Engine\v2.8.0


    Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
    ----                -------------         ------ ----
    -a----       12-12-2014     07:42         362232 NxCooking.dll
    -a----       12-12-2014     07:42        5520120 PhysXCore.dll


        Directory: C:\Dell\Drivers\T7MFF\PhysX\files\Engine\v2.8.1


    Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
    ----                -------------         ------ ----
    -a----       12-12-2014     07:42         363256 NxCooking.dll
    -a----       12-12-2014     07:42        5823736 PhysXCore.dll


        Directory: C:\Dell\Drivers\T7MFF\PhysX\files\Engine\v2.8.3


    Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
    ----                -------------         ------ ----
    -a----       12-12-2014     07:42         339192 PhysXCooking.dll
    -a----       12-12-2014     07:42         412408 PhysXCooking64.dll
    -a----       12-12-2014     07:42        5952248 PhysXCore64.dll

However, the underlying stream is still just a continous stream of FileSystemInfo's. It is the terminal display format definition that causes it formatting to break and write a directory heading whenever the next item has a different parent from the previous one.