Adding a folder to a component with selective load rules

We have a component that is used in multiple projects. Each project has its own load rule which determines which folders of the component actually get loaded. This means we have rules like this:

    <itemLoadRule>
        <component name="SomeComponent"/>
        <item repositoryPath="/SomeComponent/path/to/some/folder/foo"/>
        <sandboxRelativePath includeRepositoryPath="true"/>
    </itemLoadRule>

If I want to add some folder to a project, here is what I have to do:

1. Add an entry to the load rule file, deliver the change.
2. Create the folder to add as an empty folder through the Web UI.
3. Accept the change I just made into my workspace.
4. If I already have the folder on my local filesystem (very likely, as I want to make sure it'll work before doing all this), I have to reload the component. This will wipe my local folder clean.
5. Add the contents to the folder and deliver the change.

I have to do all this because if I just change the load rule and create the folder locally, Jazz (specifically the Eclipse plugin) will not detect the added folder as a change. I also can't reload the component at this point because of course the new folder doesn't yet exist upstream, so reloading fails.

So, my question would be this: How can I more easily add a folder to a component when that folder is not part of an already loaded directory structure and thus requires a change to the load rules?