Comment 9 for bug 61786

This has been annoying me for years too and It's such a simple thing to fix, I know it's simple because I've found a workaround:

1. Create a script that does what you want (any scripting language can be used: shell, perl, python, etc, For creating a folder I recommend bash.)
2. Be sure the script is executable and place it in ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts

You should now see an additional item "Scripts >" in the right-click context menu with the script you just made listed. If you don't, restart nautilus with ":~$ killall nautilus"

Here is the script I wrote to create a new folder in whatever folder I right-clicked on.

#!/bin/bash
mkdir $1/New_Folder

That's it!
Those two little lines.
The $1 variable is the address (path/filename) of the item clicked on.

LIMITATIONS/IMPROVEMENTS
This script does not allow you to enter a name for the new folder (you have to rename it yourself) and only works when you right-click on a folder not a file.

Perhaps someone can improve this script or the developers can add this simple feature to the context menu, it would greatly improve nautilus' usability. Tabbed browsing is nice, but this was more important.
Cheers