I’m not a Rhino user, so I did some quick searches to see what they are about. It seems like they are somewhat more like SketchUp layers/tags than what is found in typical 2D applications, but also cover considerably more properties. Some of the properties have no equivalent in SketchUp or are handled in ways unrelated to tags. Also, what I read said that a Rhino layer can appear in more than one hierarchy.
So, until/unless SketchUp implements similar capabilities there will inevitably be some loss of function beyond just the hierarchical nesting of layers. That begs the question: would a simple hierarchy of visibility tags provide the model semantics you need?