Contact List vs Friends List

[MegaGlide]

OK, I see that you can have contacts without them being "friends".
That's good.
I don't see, however, that you can actually have a useful contact list (for shooting off a quick PM to mods) that doesn't require you to wade through the laundry list of folks on your friends list.
I mean, it takes a real jerk to say no to a friend request, but it sure would be nice NOT to have to automatically include them in the contacts popup.
Is there a setting I'm missing?

Thanks!

[Wayne Luke]

The only difference between a contact and a friend is this...

For someone to be a friend, you have to be on each other's contact list. There is not a separate list for contacts and friends.

[MegaGlide]

It would be peachy if there were. Darned cumbersome this way, IMHO.