Incidents as umbrella to circumvent Custom Objects limitations

Summary

Incidents as umbrella to circumvent Custom Objects limitations

Content

Hi All,

     We have following requirements. 

1) Status must go from "Submitted" to "Under Review" in 8 working/business hours

2) Email must be sent to contact using Standard Text. 

I know both can be achieved using Business Rules - "Escalate" (and Response Requirements) and "Send Email.." actions in "Incident" object. 

But, we are planning to use "Custom Objects" to hold a lot of different kinds of data. 

So, to alleviate the "Custom Objects" limitation, can I create an Incident as parent (with Category = 'Custom Object Name') for each Custom Object?

This way, I will create my rules on "Incident" object but put all data in "Custom Object".