Ok, just noticed how create and publish aren't the same so once created the page folder is there. But to take this a step further, can I make properties required before being published?

Required properties need to be filled in before creating the item (page, block etc.). The reason for this is that we consider the On-Page-Editing as the primary editing view and since this needs a rendering of the item, we assume that a required property might be needed to be able to render this.

I understand, absolutely. Kind of miss being able to use the page folder at the create state, though. :)