I kinda like this idea a lot, but we'd need a way to have the mod identify what it's looking for, and not all of these would be easy to code for.
Maybe... a six-slot filter could work, but we already only have a one-slot filter. my reasoning is as follows: Anything that has anything in common with A and B and C, and does not have what D, E, and F have in common, is allowed. Else, rejected.
Or, some template items? Armor template, weapon template, accessory template, ammo template, consumable template, placeable template, plant template, ores template, soils template, tool template, "other" template (not armor or weapon or accessory or ammo or consumable or placeable or plant or ore or soil or tool). We would have to add some "useless" items that resemble these types of objects and some crafting recipes to make them. Like a dummy breastplate for armor, and a dirt mound for soils. Ammo would probably be able to get away with a musket ball, and for weapons, I would suggest the copper/tin shortsword (it's not like it has any other use... First thing I do when I start a new character, is toss the shortsword and cut down a tree to make a wooden broadsword. Yes it's slower, but the damage is higher, and the reach is better. Only the Calamity mod has decent shortswords-- uh, I mean, Shivs). Maybe for placeable, we could have a furnace. And for consumables, a lesser health potion. And for plants, an acorn or a daybloom/daybloom seed. We would need a sort of pseudo-ore for the minerals, like a iron ore and copper ore mixed together, or lead and copper, iron + tin, tin + lead, etc. But even with all that considered, what about bones? They qualify as ammo, for the bone glove. And they qualify as weapons, by themselves. AND they qualify as placeables with the bone wand. AND they qualify as materials with the bone welder. AND they are consumable, for all of the above. FIVE CATEGORIES. One item.
Perhaps a Name/ToolTip filter... yeah, one that searches the entire name/tooltip for a given word/word fragment/phrase. Then if found, lets the item through. That could work! Ammo is in the tooltip of all munitions, as is the consumable tag, and the "Can be placed" tag, and most ores are literally labeled with ORE in the name, I have no idea how plants could be easily filtered this way... Armor would have a defense value, and be equip-able, weapons will have "damage" in the tooltip or a mana requirement, and accessories will have equipable-- wait-a-minute. Some accessories would have defense values. Like the Ankh Sheild, and the Flesh Knuckles. And tools also tend to have "damage" values as well.
There is no quick way, as far as I can tell. It WOULD be awesome to have this, I just can't see how this could be done in a fool-proof manner...