[...]have an incoming folder that is either not watched or watched with different rules than normal (I.e only in a special view scheme).
How does that work? "Watched with different rules" ? Oh wait, I think I might get it. Is this like Glynor's method where you apply a special tag or keyword to some incoming files, then filter *all* of your views so they won't show those files? Then in a "review view", you see those files only, work with them, tag them, etc, and finally "approve" them to be in the normal views by removing the special tag?
I have a different auto import issue. If I rip video into a watched folder it hangs MC up pretty solid because it's trying to analyze video files that are incomplete. The solution in my case was simply to rip to a temporary folder and move the files over when they are done ripping. That would also work for the OP, but it does require a manual process.
On the other hand, some download clients have a setting to move files once the download completes. So you could download to a temp folder, then have your client move it to a watched folder.
Brian.