Yes deluge-console mimicks gtk-ui in deluge v2.x. You can run it non-interactively as you found, where it will auto-connect as before, with same rules for localclient mechanism I.e run under same user account as deluged, or else need to do what you did, I.e add the switches for ip/user/pass, use 'connect' command and semicolons to delimit rest commands to run after logging in, use '-c <CONFIG-DIR>' or 'sudo -u <user> deluge-console'.
Thanks for your helpful post(s) for others BTW
Edit: Forgot mention the "deferred" error can be fully ignored, though I posted a line to fix once, and is fixed in dev branch also.
Edit2: Can first press 'l' and enter command-line mode(deluge-console v1.x style) after logging-in I see - however only needs press return to login for listed/saved hosts, e.g. default localclient(possibly needing 'sudo' or '-c' switch to initiate). Btw, there's some fixes in develop branch for various issues I see/remember now, e.g. you cannot add a host currently, as will complain host not an integer etc - I posted commands previously for that too, though for now can just do what OP nicely suggested i.e. add manually to hostlist.conf/auth.