Note: Not a solution but marked as such to elevate a key reply
Perhaps this hack/workaround could come in handy (requires Asana Business or Enterprise): The Actual Time Tracking field has a unique behavior with respect to column functions; kind of the best of both worlds:
Collapsed:
Expanded:
I’m not sure if you might be able to exploit that for your needs, but it’s worth keeping this in the bag of tricks at least.
And regarding your use of subtasks in your workflow: I totally support that approach and often it’s the only or best option; there’s nothing wrong with using so many subtasks (except for the unfortunate Asana limitation here) for intermediate to advanced workflows with trained users.
I voted for your request because it would be great to have the flexibility.
Also, please don’t forget to vote yourself at the top with the purple vote button.
Thanks,
Larry