I agree with you that the lack of a progress indicator during a WPS file copy is a shortcoming.
When copying large files, or a large group of files I use Larsen Commander, which provides a very nice progress indicator. Larsen is shareware.
Another shortcoming of the WPS is lack of direct editing in details view of extended attributes, such as subject or author. I use FM2 for that. Although I wish FM2 had a search feature that would highlight all the files that contained a certain string in a selected EA. The WPS details view allows you to select/filter on EAs but it is kind of a pain to use. FM2 is freeware.
Both Larsen and FM2 provide a whole bunch of other features that you really need when working with files.