I know you can ingest by folders.. and that is good workflow anyway...
but the way Downloader Pro handles it isn't complicated or time consuming. It only reads the headers when you view by thumbnail.. otherwise, it just gets the filename and creation date from the OS.
Selecting is as easy as clicking first item in the list, then shift clicking the last, which you can tell by the big jump in time difference to the next shot, via the file creation date.
The ability to preview an image, be it in a memory card folder or folder on a hard drive is very useful for making sure you've got the right metadata set and aren't about to label one band as another...
Downloader Pro makes it very quick because to selectively download 2 different photo sets with different metadata from the same card only takes 4 mouse clicks (1st selection start, 1st selection end, download selected & delete from card, keyboard shortcut to change metadata, click to download all (remaining files), and done.. nothing complicated, very quick, and downloader pro only needs to get the directory listing once, not twice.
Cheers,
J.