>Does SELECT ..... INTO TABLE .... create a table which always EXCL ON?

Yes; you always have exclusive access to a file created this way unless you close and reopen it again shared. A quick way to do that in place:

SELECT ... INTO TABLE ...
LOCAL cAlias, cDBF
cAlias = ALIAS()
cDBF = FULLPATH(DBF())
USE
USE (cDBF) ALIAS (cAlias) SHARED