For me, "coffee with Chuck" is #2 rather than #3 and yes, I want it in my inbox (maybe simply stay there until it happens, then archive it automatically).

Your other examples are clearly #3... and I don't need to read any of those emails.

Amazon confirmation emails are completely useless since Amazon always ships on time; in the exceptional case where a package doesn't arrive, I can go fetch the tracking number somewhere to investigate; but reading these for every package is a waste of time.

Mailing lists should go to a special folder labelled "things to read on a rainy day".

And finally "crap" is spam, no?

- - -

What about a service that would let you give a special email address for Amazon confirmation emails, for example, that would receive these emails and index and categorize them. When a package doesn't arrive you go there to look for the tracking number, but only then.

Of course you can do that with tags in Gmail.

What you can't do in Gmail is to generate a single PDF of all proforma received from a given provider, for example.