Question: I'm trying to implement a list where the only item type is a folder. If someone click "New" they are brought to a form that allows them to enter a folder name, description, and select either "Active" or "Inactive" from a drop-down menu. Inside the folder I want a simple list with only 2 columns. 

I tried making a custom Folder content type with the columns I needed and making it the default content type. This seems to work to make the list of folders. Once I go inside the folder and try to change the internal view/list setting (I don't want to use the custom folder content type inside the folder...i just need 2 simple columns) it changes the settings for the list of folders as well. Is there any way for the internal list to have different settings than its parent?

Answer: 
I don't know if this issue is still relevant, but maybe someone else will find my answer useful.

I used to implement a list that contains only folders in the root, which in order can contain few item based content types.
There was two event receivers for FeatureActivated and ItemAdded events, which changes UniqueContentTypeOrder property (the list of content types available for user to create) of the lists root folder and a folder being created respectively. Like this:

```
List<SPContentType> ctl = new List<SPContentType>();
foreach (SPContentType ct in lst.ContentTypes) if (ct.Id.IsChildOf(SPBuiltInContentTypeId.Folder)) ctl.Add(ct);
lst.RootFolder.UniqueContentTypeOrder = ctl;
lst.RootFolder.Update();

```

Also, I designated different available list views for root folder and the folders it contains, by specifying ContentTypeID attribute for a View definition.
Unfortunately, no. Since SharePoint is Lists are not relational data, the only options to you are allowing several Content Types. If a content type is available to the list, it's available to the entire list (root, and sub-folders).

One possibility to model what you are trying to accomplish relies on SharePoint 2010 Enterprise. Infopath allows you to customize the New Item Form for a List. It might be possible to edit the form such that it only allows Folders on the Top Level, and List Items within a folder, but I don't know for sure - it's been a while since I customized a List Form with Infopath.