Import catalog develop settings without overwriting keywords

"is it possible to import only develop settings without writing over my keyword/name metadata?"

There's no option to do that directly, but you can do it in multiple steps:

1. Do Import From Another Catalog with the option Preserve Old Settings As A Virtual Copy.  This will create a virtual copy of each photo in the original catalog that's also in the imported catalog, and those virtual copies will have all the metadata changes you've made to them.

2. Select all the photos in Previous Import, those photos newly imported from the editor's catalog. Do the Syncomatic plugin's Sync Stacks Or Masters To VCs, selecting Masters to Virtual Copies and checking just Develop Settings. This will copy the develop settings from the editor's photos to the corresponding virtual copies that have your changed metadata.

3. Select the special collection Updated Photos. Then select each virtual copy and do the menu command Set Copy As Original.  That makes the virtual copy (the one with your metadata changes and the editor's develop settings) the original (master) and the photo imported from the catalog the virtual copy (Unfortunately, Set Copy To Original only works on one photo at a time due to a LR bug.)

4. Go to Previous Import, select all the virtual copies, and delete them.