The discussion on the Wiki page suggests that TabBar shows all tabs belonging to the same "group" as the current buffer, and that grouping rules can be customised.
Also, emacs’s tabbar mode’s tab can be hidden, as if showing only the current “page” of a tab set, called a “group”. By default, tabs are grouped by major mode. So, for example, if current buffer is in html-mode, all the tabs shown are other buffers in html-mode. If there are no other html-mode buffers, then you will have only one tab, even if you have lots other buffers. All your dired buffers, C-mode buffers, java-buffers, etc, are in other tab group and is hidden. You have to click on a special tab widget to switch to them, or use keyboard shortcut to switch tab or tab group.
What is considered as a tab group can be customized. You could set it up so every buffer is of the same group.
Custom tab group definitions sounds like a way to do what you want, assuming I've understood the question correctly.
The Wiki also has an example of some customisation.
http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/TabBarMode