I dont like the way the CB visibility groups work. Some of which is explained by you quite nicely. For me, I save and use differing templates to do things as you describe. That works well for my purposes and maybe they will for you too.
Your mixconsole question is interesting. I dont know the answer to that one as I keep the mixconsole pretty much the same in all my templates. My differing templates are more toward differeing input busses and tracks and loading differing default VSTs in the project window. Changing these things in the project will not change the template (unless you want it to).
Maybe it is time to pull the trigger and check out a trial version of CB. 
Regards. 