there has been a suggestion like this but with a different name, altough i do agree that it needs to be a thing.
inventory clutter is getting worse with more and more items, doing this will be a lot better, here is an idea i made for a different thread about this (never put it on the merging tool thread though for some reason)
hold down a key like R while using it and it brings up a select wheel.
maybe while the devs are also doing improvements to inventory they could throw this in.
although maybe still have the tools in the inventory but you only need 1 tool in hand to use the quick switch, or if you want you can still have all of them on your hot bar (since some people may not like the quick switch idea)