This can be fixed by COLLAPSING the weapon groups. Basically, only show the weapon data and ammo of the currently active weapon group. This way you can fit a lot more weapon groups without any extra space, and you improve the UI clutter issue by removing the display of unnecessary data
Okay, so we're going to add weapon groups, so that we can stop displaying weapon groups, so that we can avoid making a mess from there being too many weapon groups. Sounds good. No, wait, it sounds like the other thing. Bad.
I don't think a single person in this thread has expressed an interest in manually targeting and shooting more than a few selections of weapons. That's the main purpose of weapon groups, if you aren't grouping them to shoot them, then why do you need more groups? No one activates broadside group 4c because they have more fun firing a flak broadside instead of beam broadside. They want control of it because the ship has too many weapons, the flux is overloading and something needs to shut down before the autofire kills your ship.
Adding dozens of weapon groups is a micro solution to a macro problem. Individual weapon control is the micro solution, where players look for the least important weapons in their current situation to turn offline. The macro problem is with managing the
flux budget of the player ship. Flux management concerns the entire ship and is directly linked to weapon control. There may need to be a complex set of underlying rules but the intents of the flux budget are clear. Players want options to push their ship limits, squeezing every last ounce of flux to force a kill. They want options to be efficient, trying to get the best flux efficiency in a situation. They want options to be defensive, keeping flux low and prioritizing point defense. Finally they may want to hold fire all together, to force the zero flux speed bonus. Those are all viable ship stances to have, and you don't need to twiddle with a dozen weapon groups to make them happen.