Hi Joe,
One thing you can do is
Remove DG2's built-in add button "+" entirely and then
Add a custom button → add a microflow on click of that in which
$WorkOrder via the association
Then you can conitnure working on uncommitted parents because Mendix holds both objects in memory.
and after all your business logic you can commit Work Order object and all associated parts together.
This aligns with what you were already thinking,