You can (and I do) make my own filters in gmail for e.g., this maillist, which moves it into a folder and is reflected in IMAP as a folder.  In addition, gmail has an orthogonal system they call categories that auto-categorizes mail: inbox, social, updates, formus, promotions.  This is not reflected into IMAP, all these categories are just INBOX.  This is my problem, gmail auto-categorizing magic is just too useful but only available through web I/F.  I _could_ write filters in theory, but gmail magic is just so much better at it.

On Sat, Mar 12, 2022 at 7:04 AM Patrick O'Callaghan <pocallaghan@gmail.com> wrote:

It behaves *somewhat* like it has folders, but labels are actually a
superset in terms of functionality. Specifically, a message can have
multiple labels, so from the IMAP viewpoint it shows up in multiple
folders. Most IMAP clients will treat these as independent copies,
while in fact they are more akin to hard links in Linux terminology.
--
Those who don't understand recursion are doomed to repeat it