Ptah Dunbar

This plugin adds the ability to link to specific sidebars in the widgets admin page and have them open up automatically. In addition, by default when visiting the widgets admin page, none of the sidebars are open.
<pre><a href="<?php echo admin_url( 'widgets.php' ) .'?sidebar=aside'; ?>">Add Widgets</a></pre>
You’ll need to know the IDs of the sidebars you’d like to have opened. For multiple sidebars, simply separate them with commas.
<pre><a href="<?php echo admin_url( 'widgets.php' ) .'?sidebar=aside,body_open,before_the_loop'; ?>">Add Widgets</a></pre>
Alternatively, you can use the <code>add_widgets_link()</code> function:
<pre><?php echo waf_widgets_link( 'aside', 'Add Widgets to Aside' ); ?> <?php echo waf_widgets_link( 'aside,body_open,before_the_loop' ); ?></pre>

Widgets Admin Fix

This plugin adds the ability to link to specific sidebars in the widgets admin page and have them open up automatically.

Jonathan Daggerhart

This plugin lets you create new WP queries as widgets and use shortcodes for queries on your pages. It also allows you to override the way category and tag pages display.
Query Wrangler’s interface is highly intuitive way to create queries and will be second nature for any Drupal Views user.
This plugin will bring extreme flexibility to WordPress users with its ability to create custom queries using the WP_Query class with a user interface.
Supports:
<ul>
<li>Most post data, including meta fields</li>
<li>Taxonomy data</li>
<li>Advanced Custom Fields</li>
<li>Custom Content Type Manager</li>
<li>Some exposed filters</li>
</ul>
Some examples of how you would use this plugin include:
<ul>
<li>Create a list posts with featured images</li>
<li>Create a list of pages or posts within a specific category or tag</li>
<li>Create an image gallery</li>
<li>Modify the way your category pages look</li>
</ul>

Query Wrangler

Query Wrangler provides an intuitive interface for creating complex WP queries as shortcodes and widgets. UI based on Drupal Views.

Widgets Admin Fix vs Query Wrangler