Welcome, @Seth_Harlaar and @Virginia_Mowery,
I’d generally recommend using a custom task type that corresponds to your seven steps/stages, and then grouping your view by that type. That would be instead of workflow subtasks. I would recommend that for a few reasons, including that it would address your complaints with implementing a typical pipeline project with sections.
Also, you can vote for the feature here:
And see the post there by @Richard_Sather in that thread that’s marked as a solution for a (complex!) workaround.
Thanks,
Larry