With other hierarchy (un)collapses, holding down an alt/option key would apply to the underlying hierarchy, rather than just one level collapse, so an Option-collapse on the Universe, then an unoptioned Expand click on the Universe should expand with everything below still collapsed. Two clicks might be acceptable.

The other possibility is that a control click on an actor in the hierarchy editor brings up a pop-up menu, which could have expand/collapse options added to it.

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