I guess so. Well, I'll wait a bit to see if anyone else has a brainwave. Otherwise, I'll come back and mark your previous answer as correct, since there doesn't seem to be a way to do this.
Thanks,
Ariel
Hi Ariel
My suggestion so far was "fill a feature request", and this is not an answer good enough to be 'correct'.
I guess the only way to get the thing is scripting.
This one-liner will distribute selected objects with a spacing of a given value:
app.activeDocument.distribute(app.selection, DistributeOptions.VERTICAL_SPACE, undefined, true, 10);
and this one will honor Key Object, but spacing is zero:
app.activeDocument.distribute(app.selection, DistributeOptions.VERTICAL_SPACE, AlignDistributeBounds.KEY_OBJECT, undefined, true, app.activeDocument.selectionKeyObject);
both ignore current Spacing settings in Align panel.
Not a final answer, too. Just a way to go, I believe. I'm not a scripter, let's see what the experts will say.