How to accomplish complex non-export plugin?

I want to create a plugin allowing the user to select a photo or photos, choose Develop Presets to apply,  make virtual copies of the photo, and apply the presets.  The detailed workflow is:

For a selected photo or photos:

* Allow the user to select preset copy options:

    * Select from any installed Develop Presets by checking checkboxes or similar

    * Select presets from a previously saved set of presets

    * Choose whether the copies should be grouped with the original

* Once the selection is made, for each photo and preset, make a virtual copy and apply the preset to that virtual copy

* If grouping was selected, create a Stack and group them all together

I am looking for advice on the best way to handle this task. I have proven the basic operation using a dialog-based plugin, but I found it untenable because of the size of the dialog. Simply populating a dialog with all the presets makes the dialog larger than the screen.

The tools provided in the Export plugin make this a bit easier since it provides niceties such as scroll bars and the ability to save Preset groupings for later use.  Unfortunately, the concept of exporting does not jibe with that of making a virtual copy; rendering is expensive and not necessary.

Any suggestions for how I might accomplish this would be greatly appreciated!