I have been using another cloud sync tools that shall remain nameless, and it has a feature that allows you sync some folders locally and keep others on the cloud. They are all still visible and downloaded on demand. I think simply adding an include pattern to the vfs-cache to force read buffering would replicate this feature in rclone! It would be great to have it on rclone as well.
welcome to the forum,
i believe that your feature has been discussed serveral times in the forum.
and from github https://github.com/rclone/rclone/issues/6051