In Photos for Mac, if images in Imports are deleted, it gets removed in other albums as well!

The Imports album is showing all photos in your library. Deleting a photo there will delete it from the library.

If you want an album that is showing only your recent imports, that you did not yet add to your custom albums, try a smart album with the rules "Match all: Date added is in the last ... days" and "Album is not any".

Then you can see the most recently imported photos in one place, without the photos you already filed in albums.

of course not - albums are purely virtual, not a "place" - a photo can be any as many albums as you want but it only exists once in the library and if it is removed from the library then it is gone and can not be viewed form an album or anyplace else

You do not "move" photos to albums, you add then to the virtual album and you can not delete photos from import unless you want them gone everywhere - and even if you could it would be a big mistake since Import is a history of what you imported and when and is very important to have

LN