Форуми / Cotonti / Support / Recent items - why is there only pagination for latest topics?

You can do whatever you like. Still, pagelist is much easier to customize and has alot more options. Just one example: try to output news from 2 root categories using the news plug. Or blacklist news posts by an extrafield value, or use it globally, or random sort items, or top viewed items, or build a paginated blog - you name it.