In a saved search, where you group by some field, and then leave children not grouped.. it requires the user to drill into the group to get to the detail. Is there a method to display the children without drilling down?

No, saved search does not have a view like that, sounds more like something you do in a report view.

got it, bummer, thanks

have a look at suiteanalytics workbooks. Sounds like a pivot table would work for you

LISTAGG might be useful as well