You asked how a seasoned veteran would do it. I've got 12 years of TestStand and 20 of LabVIEW (and I'm older than you).
Yes I did. Thank you. Be careful what you ask for, eh?
I considered your latest approach but since I feel my master's whip on my back I deferred the learning curve for putting arrays into property files. Doing it this way I am done with that upgrade and may get to go home on time this Friday (and get to the fiddler's convention at a reasonable hour). But I will learn how to do it for future upgrades as it looks like I am stuck being the NI guy.
Older, eh? Hopefully wiser too.