Given the immediate and positive response to this proposal, I've gone ahead and started implementing it. I've created the new Status fields, but they're currently invisible. Once they're placed into the Workflow, they'll appear.
I'd like to schedule adding them to the workflow, modifying the canned searches and bulk changing the existing bugs for some time in the next week or two. Does anyone have a preference on what day of the week or time of day would have the least negative impact on our work?