@mdione @va2lam @andrewz
No; it's pretty clear that using an external editor goes against the grain of what the software is designed to do. A pile of hacks or workarounds are not ever going to be a good experience.

Digikam is not a good fit for my particular use case. That's not a criticism; it just shows how good software needs to be opinionated about its design. Something that would support every possible workflow wouldn't really support any of them.