Update Column Breaks is broken for optional columns

I have a number of columns in my master which are optional. As the text length is not consistent, I added “Update Column Breaks” in the master. This works fine in the child pages where all the columns are present, but if I delete one column in a particular child, the structure breaks on a smaller window size.

I was puzzling over this for a few days when it finally struck me that it’s not dynamic (as it is in a WP theme or PHP )where the columns are counted as they are created) but calculated based on the columns present in the master - or more specifically, the ordinal of the column above the clear columns tag. The code doesn’t change in the child when a column is deleted.

I can fix the child by running Update Column Break there, but of course the fix is overwritten on the next update.

Is there any way to change PIneGrow so it recognises column break situations and doesn’t change the column break code unless the columns change?

Ta muchly