NoCodeUK - thanks for the thought and the effort. I was hoping to make it act logically without retagging or setting up custom fields - that would be me working for the program, not the program working for me. As I mentioned, it's not a show-stopper, it's just something that will gnaw at me for every single second that I use MC until I finally lose my mind
Matt - if [autoalbumartist] is not supposed to work as a sort key, then why does it work at all? I'm not trying to be a smart*ss, but sincerely interested. Here's the view scheme I built to get nearly what I want:
Media Type: audio
Genre / Album Artist (auto) / Album
Search Criteria: Sort: [autoalbumartist]
Please do not tell me "Thanks, that's a bug and we'll remove that capability right away!" because I will be stuck on an old build of MC for the forseeable future