Mainstage - anyway to overcome metronome shortcomings?

For a mature product, MainStage's (MS) metronome architecture is extremely restrictive. Compared to a mobile metronome app like Tempo (by Frozen Ape Pte Ltd), the default stock metronome plugin Klopfgeist is amateurish.

The biggest bugbear is that the metronome is tied to the MS system clock. In this scenario - I "turn off" the metronome mid-song as the singer is singing in rubato. When I "turn on" the metronome to bring the band/singer back to set tempo, the first audible click is not at the very instance of "turning on", since it is following the system clock cadence in the background. This momentary off-sync can throw the band/singer off.

Worse still, if using the above scenario, I have a loop in the stock Playback plugin meant for certain song segment/s, and Playback is set to sync with the metronome and "snap to bar", I would at the concert level set different note pitches for Bar and Beat for the metronome. When I "turn on" the metronome to bring the band/singer back to set tempo, there is no telling which beat in a bar the first audible click is on. This is even more off-putting as the band/singer would have to listen for a bar or two to catch beat 1 of the bar.

I've done enough research to come to the conclusion that the MS metronome architecture is just inflexible. I've tried replacing Klopfgeist with another stock plugin, Ultrabeat, but to no avail since Ultrabeat is also bound by the same tied-to-system-clock limitation. I've also tried looking for viable third-party metronome plugins but have found none.

I would like to hear from anyone who has experienced similar frustrations, if you have found a way to overcome MS metronome shorcomings.