I asked about creating the pool, as I was wondering how your container DB records were removed whilst the storage pool DB records still remained, really I am asking why do you need to import the container?
When I tried to simulate this, by first creating a container, and then removing the storage pool, when I tried to re-create the storage pool it wouldn’t let me create it with a non-empty directory.
Anyway, when LXD starts now, the storage pools are mounted, so this may resolve it for you.