Deferred message download (like Windows Live Mail)

Hello, I have been a long-time user of Windows Live Mail (since the times when it was called Outlook Express) and I still believe it is extremely convenient software. However, it has not been supported for four years (thus it is difficult to install on new systems) and has not been updated since 2012 (thus the features and stability started to suffer). Because of this, I have decided to give Thunderbird a second try. Mostly I am happy with its progress – the majority of the issues I had in 2017 can now be resolved or hopefully will be resolved in the near future (like the [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=213945 multi-line message list] that people have been asking for '''18!''' years). However, the synchronization and storage management in Thunderbird is still pretty simplistic and I wonder if something can be done about this. In case someone is not aware , here is how it works in Live Mail. A folder may be in four states: ''Download all messages'', ''Download new messages only'', ''Download headers only'', and ''Do not synchronize''. However, it applies to actual synchronization (Send/Receive) only – when you simply open the folder, only the headers are automatically downloaded from IMAP. For these messages, the explanation like ''"Message has not been downloaded. Click here to download"'' is displayed in the message pane. Once the message is downloaded (by clicking this link or during synchronization), it is remains stored in the mailbox until explicitly deleted or removed. In this way, the sender and the subject are visible in the message list and you can quickly deal with spam and other unwanted content, as well as quickly check urgent mail, without security risks and wasted time and network traffic. For Thunderbird, I have seen advice to turn off message synchronization for a folder. However, this does not actually solves the problem. First, the message is still automatically downloaded and displayed whenever you click on it in the list (possibly by accident), invalidating the above goal. Second, this prevents Thunderbird from actually storing local copy of any downloaded mail (even after Get Messages button), kinda defeating the purpose of a standalone client. Is there any hope? ))) Thank you