Have you considered the use of Tags to help you organise your podcasts? For example, keep the queue for new episodes that you are keeping on top of as and when they drop and have Tags for the various backlogs of podcasts that you are gradually working your way through,
On second thought, I agree with you, but please allow those who want to use one primary playlist as the default where everything will be managed. It would be useful and effective for those who want to, like me.