Almost all JSF taglibs (richfaces, tomahawk, trinidad, icefaces and so on)
provide h:dataTable equivalent with sorting and/or navigation support.
Different taglibs are compared here [1] (this comparision is about AJAX
support mainly, but usable as taglib functionality overview nonetheless)
Web page editor palette is automatically populated from TLD files of used
taglibs in the page being edited. Components descriptions are loaded from
there too. Generally, displayed descriptions should be enough to choose
component from the list. I see no point in including whole component
documentation there :)
If you want to change descriptions text, then you should consider altering
TLDs of taglibs you use.
P.S. I would advise using trinidad tr:table, but since you find it's
documentation poor, you may try using richfaces or icefaces. Maybe you'll
have more luck there.