Is there a way to have one particular request/incident area at the top of the list of request/incident areas?
Yes, since they are in alphabetical order, you can simply rename a category to append a symbol (such as "@") or a number (such as "1_") in front of the category name. For example, if you have a cateogry called "Microsoft Office" you can rename it to "@_Microsoft Office" OR "1_Microsoft Office", which would make it show up at the top of the list.