need a sane approach to MIME attachment organization

I find it very sloppy that people send files attached to email, and
I've always been disturbed that the available tools organize them
poorly.

When an email arrives with an attachment, sometimes the attachment
should be deleted but not the message, or vice-versa.  So it does not
make sense to have files embedded inseperably with a message.  Nor
does it make sense to have multiple copies (one in the email, and the
other saved separately).

What do expert procmail users do?

All files should probably be extracted as messages arrive, and be
placed in a proper filesystem.  The MIME object should then be removed
from the message, but there should be a reference to the file on the
filesystem.  There should also be a back-reference from the file to
the message, so that the linkage can be maintained when the file is
moved or renamed.

Seems like a job for procmail.