Can I change maximum passcode attempts before catastrophic lockout?

Short story. I often take off my watch and put it back on for various unavoidable things I have to do, so the passcode became kindof a nuisance, and I turned it off. Next, I have my watch in my pocket--supermarket, mowing grass, other times my watch arm is fixed to something and can't swing to count steps. With passcode off, it started dialing my first favorite number from time to time, especially while mowing. Advised by a smart person here to turn passcode back on so it couldn't do anything on its own. Did so, and that solved the auto-dial issue, although I'm entering the passcode 15-20 times a day. Yesterday, though, after mowing, I got the Apple Watch equivalent of the blue screen of death on a PC: Too Many Passcode Attempts..."

After an hour of research here, and trying other things (I thought "Unlock with iPhone" was turned on, but it wasn't or won't work when the too many attempts threshold has been reached), I gave up and reset the watch, re-paired, and restored from the iPhone, although the usual 15k steps I record mowing the grass were of course not there. Altogether, research here and the painfully long time to restore from the iPhone, took a good two hours. I'd just as soon not do that again. My time is not really valuable, but it's worth enough to not throw away just resetting the watch. I've looked for how to set the maximum failed passcode attempts, but apparently, like manually setting the length of your stride, that's something Apple doesn't think users are qualified to do.

Any suggestions?