Drag and drop FLAC audio into iPod to convert and add?

I manually sort my music as albums in folder directories. I have never liked how iTunes wanted to sort my music back in 2005 and I don't like it any more today.

I recently got a 6th gen iPod Nano via the 1st gen iPod Nano replacement program and I am disappointed in how I cannot use Winamp to manage my playlists anymore. Winamp would automatically transcode incompatible FLAC audio into MP3 before transferring onto my 1st gen Nano.

I have my iPod options under iTunes set to automatically convert higher bitrate audio to 192kbps AAC, but dragging and dropping FLAC audio into my iPod gives an error message that prevents me from adding anything.

I thought maybe I had to import my audio into iTunes' library first, but scanning for media adds every audio file including system and program audio files to my library, which really clutters things up. It treats each artist as an album, so compilation albums of 30 audio tracks from 30 artists appear as 30 individual albums in my iTunes library. Most cumbersome.

I am also appauled in how it did not detect or support playback of FLAC audio. I am not willing to convert my entire library into a proprietary lossless audio format just because iTunes wants me to when other programs and I were getting along so well without iTunes and my 1st gen Nano.

Anyway, what I am hoping to achieve is to find a streamlined way to convert FLAC audio files into MP3 or AAC while I am transferring them to my iPod without having to involve another program to manually convert before adding. This is a huge convenience factor for which I am regretting having my 1st gen Nano replaced. I will admit that I am perhaps being overly stubborn here. Maybe I'll just sell this 6th gen Nano while it's still pristine and get a Sansa Clip or something. Apple products have become too stifling and I won't be surprised if there was no way to achieve what I am asking to do here, so maybe this ends up a being more of a rant than a search for answers.