I think there really should be another mode in Rename, Move & Copy, which is just a plain ol' Directory Rename (irrespective of MC's imported items). Users are asked too much to simply rename directories.
I've thought about this often before. I
certainly wouldn't be opposed to this if implemented well, though I wonder what that UI would look like. Are you thinking a version of the existing Find and Replace style mode?
Because otherwise, I don't know how it would work. The idea seems to assume that the user would only pick files that are already "nicely segregated" before using this mode (already in a folder where everything is going to the same destination), but that's not how Rename, Move, and Copy works. I regularly select my entire M:\Incoming\ folder, and
everything it contains (subject to some filters, usually) and apply it all at once to 300-600 files. I tag, tag, tag, tag, tag (sometimes for days at a time) and then do Control-A and do big sets of batch moves all at once.
But that M:\Incoming\ "junk" directory might have a whole swath of unrelated files in it that aren't in subdirectories. So, it might have "cover art" for 39 different movies, for example, right in the root of M:\Incoming\. By filename they are somewhat obviously related (often, though there are always a bunch of random .txt and .nfo files left over when I'm done with my organization, which I just delete), but how would MC know what to do in these cases? Make copies of them everywhere? Randomly move them to the first (or last) destination directory it happens to come upon?
And what about when the user selects something important, like their C:\Users\<username>\Documents\ folder, for example? Or if someone accidentally tells it to move the C:\Windows\ directory or something (because they had one lone file at C:\Windows\MySong.mp3 that snuck in to the view and they didn't notice it when they did Control-A)? I think it would need a bunch of "protective" special-cases.
Do you have a vision for how this new suggested UI would deal with stuff like that?
I ask because I think that's the reason
why it doesn't have that feature, and why (if you want to just rename directories) you have to do it in Drives and Devices where you can do less damage (and operate directly on the files and folders themselves). Solving that issue
in this tool is non-trivial.
I set up a couple views and experimented with your idea, but I am not a big fan of having all my media mixed together like that. Maybe I would get used to it over time, but I have nice maintenance views set up and grouped already that work for me.
I did forget one thing in my description (actually, probably more since I wasn't looking right at it). My sort-order for my entire Advanced\Imports "folder view" (and all sub-views) is actually [Media Type], [Filename]. That way, images and documents sort together, usually below my audio files.
Again, it might not perfectly meet your needs... I really don't have a huge amount of stuff that I keep together like that. Basically, just my audiobooks (which often have auxiliary files I want to keep together) and a handful of albums that have PDF liner notes that I want to keep. I don't even keep separate cover art files (they're embedded in the file tags) unless forced.
But, I was confused by: "I am not a big fan of having all my media mixed together like that". What does that mean? In your maintenance view, you can filter them via the Panes on the fly (that's why I add a [Media Type] and [Media Sub Type] pane), and as I said, this wouldn't be a view you'd use for browsing your media, only for tagging and maintenance work. That seems like an odd thing to say. Essentially, it reads to me like: I want it to move this stuff, based on fancy rules that could cause havoc, but I don't want to see the stuff I'm moving. Ever. That's weird. I'd never want that. Way too scary for this guy.
If you were only moving things one album at a time, then I guess it would be fine, but that's an absurdly slow way to do things, IMHO. But, to each their own I suppose.
One last thing to mention, because it is a good point. In one of MrC's linked threads, he pointed out that you don't have to segregate these administrative views under a separate "Advanced" top-level view if you don't want to do that. An equally valid method would be to make the Imports view-folder underneath Audio (or Images or Video or whatever) in your tree, and just de-select the Obey Parent Filters checkbox in the Customize View dialog on that folder-view. That way, you could have separate filtering for just those views, and still "keep it together" under the top-level Audio, Images, and Video tree locations.
I don't like that personally because it confuses my Wife when she bumbles into those "advanced views". Segregating them out of the Audio, Images, and Video top-level views allows me to keep those sections "clean" for production library browsing only, and she'll never "wander into" the Advanced top-level view. But, if you prefer it, that's certainly possible.