In DxO PhotoLab 3.3 virtual copies have a master (“M”) and numbered copies (“1”, “2”, etc.). Both for the export as well as for PL internal management of the copies an independent file name would be very helpful. Currently, when I rename one instance, all instances are renamed. Alternatively (or in addition to the independent file names) an independent field for a comment (per virtual copy) would be helpful. I need somewhere to describe how each copy differs from the master. And what is specific to the master.
I have also found topic Rename virtual copies or Add a description field but it was closed mid-November 2019. It contains several different ideas and the closure note does not describe which ones have been put onto the backlog list. There is no info on the timing and since the topic is closed I cannot vote to increase its priority.
Since there is only one disk file, a rename must apply to all virtual copies. The idea of a comment field is intriguing since that would only require an extension to the sidecar standard. It would of course be non-portable, but maybe other digital developers use a similar field.
To carry your idea a bit further, I’ve actually looked into sidecars to see if there is an easy way to export all of the settings into an easy-to-read format or even a .csv file. Occasionally I’ve wanted to know images to which I have applied a warm filter, for example. This technique could also be applied to the built-in PL presets to allow a different type of preset selection other than purely visual.
The JSON-style format of the sidecars needs a good parser, but some of the fields (notably crop) are not easily digested by human eyes.
I am sure this can be solved differently - Lightroom, too, has only one disk file and independent file names for every virtual copy. It could be a virtual file name…