Configuring IMAP Thunderbird/gmail to work like POP?

Apologizing in advance for a question that invites a "why would you want to do that?" response.

But I'd like my Thunderbird, working with my gmail, configured for IMAP, to function as it did when I had it configured for POP.

What I'd like is that:

• My Thunderbird has all my gmail messages, that go back 10+ years
• When I fire up Thunderbird, it gets my "new" messages - those that have arrived since the last time I opened Thunderbird
• The action of Thunderbird "getting" or syncing new messages, causes gmail to archive those messages
• Thunderbird won't always get caught up in trying to sync the nearly 300,000 messages I have in gmail, most of which I have captured elsewhere in Thunderbird folders

I realize that this isn't exactly what IMAP is set up to do; I'd had Thunderbird set up for POP for a long time, but when I was trying to get it to send messages, there were server problems that I solved by switching to IMAP.

Perhaps there is a way to tell gmail to only sync the all mail for messages after a certain date? How do I set up for the type of behavior I want?