Import / Adding Properties

I'm still stuck on setting timestamps on my files.

This time I tried rebuilding my repository, creating a directory of the
versioned files only, and importing from there with svn import. So far
so good, it did exactly what I'd expect.

Now, I would like to attach properties to these files which contain
their current timestamps. That way when I check them out I can
retreive those and touch the files.

However, I cannot set properties in the repository, only in a WC
(right?). But if I do a checkout that will set all the timestamps in
the new WC to the time of checkout, which loses exactly the data I
wanted to retain.

It appears I have to import from a dummy directory, check out a WC to
another directory, copy the files from the dummy directory over top of
the WC to get back the old timestamps, then do propsets to attach the
timestamps to the files, and do a commit to get the timestamps into the
repository.

Why can't I add properties directly to files in the repository?

Also, why is the dance with svn import / svn checkout necessary? Why
isn't there a way to create a WC during or just after the import
process, creating the admin information (.svn) but not touching the
files? To me this mirrors a perfectly normal use case, simply putting
an existing directory under version control.

I'm curious partly because I want to know if the things I'm trying to
do -- however normal they seem to me -- are somehow outside the realm
of what Subversion is designed for, or if they are just things no one
has asked for or no one has managed to put in yet.

Thanks,

--
Tom
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