No Compatible Fields for Collection Lists? Work Arounds?

[morganl91]

I am typing this out for the second time because, for whatever reason, it didn't post on the first attempt.

The Preface:

 I have already spoken to Shopify support about this. They are bringing it to their team to figure out a solution or add it as a new feature.

The Backstory:

I want to make a template for all of my "navigation category 'landing' pages" (the page that opens when they click a category in my navigation).

All of the category pages have subcategories in the form of a collection list that all need to be different.

-Enter metafields-

The Issue:

A 'page metafield >> collection list' does not work with collection lists. If I go to dynamic source in a collection list, it says there are no compatible fields. Metafields only allow me to use individual collections in collection list dynamic sources. 

I have over 60 categories with many more subcategories. Doing individual collection metafields will take FOREVER.

The Question(s):

Is there a work-around for this?

Or a better way to do this?

Should I just make individual templates for each category page?

I hope this all makes sense. I have added screengrabs of my website for clarification on how my navigation looks and what the page layout ideally would be.

[morganl91]

Adding on: 

Another reason for making collection list metafields compatible with collection lists (besides saving time): You could have different numbers of collections shown on a template between pages.

[bryhardt]

Been trying to figure out why I couldn't get this to work for the last couple of hours. Guess it isn't me.