To apply the profiles as presets you'll need to first open an image, don't apply any settings other than the profile from the Camera Calibration menu. Next, create a preset on the left-screen menu. If it asks you what develop settings you want to be part of this pre-set, only select camera calibration. Those presets will be availble in the import menu.
I created a pre-set for each of the camera profiles (landscape, portrait, neutral, vivid, standard, etc.). Additionally, becaues the profiles may be different for different cameras, I created a pre-set of each profile for each camera. I included the camera model in the pre-set name (for example "D300 - Portrait" and "D700 - Portrait"). Then you can apply the presets to all of the images on import.
I agree with you about not abandoning RAW shooting just because you want the LR previews to resemble the in-camera jpg files. I think that a LR preview that more closely resembles the in-camera jpg would be a good starting point for processing the RAW file.
Also, the camera profiles have gotten better with each update to LR and the LR betas.