@ownedbycats - I dodge the bullet by not using the Single Metadata Edit dialogue.
Instead I edit in the book list. I control which and in what order columns are shown via a Views I define with the View Manager plugin. And I sometimes move, show, or hide columns on an ad-hoc basis.
The only columns I can't edit in the book list are Comments and Identifiers, so I move Comments to a custom column called Blurb, which I can edit from the book list. On the extremely rare occasion I need to edit an Identifier I'll use the Single MDE dialogue.
BR
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