Telegram is a bit of a mess across the different UI here, not sure if we should take that as an example. also, Telegram shows the last messages, while that may be useful, it is the opposite of what is requested by the original post.
WhatsApp’s default is what Delta Chat is doing - maybe this is also a reason we are not getting that much backlash as one would expect for such a large change 
what we try to avoid in general are options in the settings. also, if the “Archived Chat” is suddenly at a completely different place on some UI, that sounds like sth. that should better be avoided. not sure about additional types. we have now some consistency and simplicity that is worth to keep and to build on that.
that said, it was already discussed here and there how to iterate over “Archived Chats”, and the ideas are pretty close to what was mentioned here
- eg. to have an option to “hide” the archived chat (long tap, right click or swipe) - it would still be atop of the list, however, only be shown on “overscroll” - that could work at least on android/ios, maybe even desktop.
however, implementing that seems to be quite some work. on some UI the chatlist is already a quite complex beast, with issues already now, adding more complexity there should be considered carefully, also timing wise
if there are ideas how to implement that in an easier way while keeping the objectives of a simple, consistent UX across all UI and not to miss messages, that’d be very welcome. eg. core could also move “Archived” to the end of the list when “Hidden” - that’s less nice, but much easier to implement - so maybe good enough. but maybe there are other ideas to make things easier …
EDIT: wrt Conversation Swipe Snoozing question is also if the presence of “Archived” or the “Badge always whowin 1” is the core of the issue