Hi @sPretzel,
Thanks for reaching out. I understand what you mean about wanting to turn the Transform FX copies into actual editable objects without losing the live effects. At the moment, Illustrator does not provide a direct way to 'convert' those copies. The Expand Appearance option is the only method available, but as you noticed, it expands the effects and the duplicates no longer stay live. I understand that this functionality is important to you, and I apologize for its unavailability at this time. Would you mind creating a UserVoice for this feature request (https://adobe.ly/3JtESBP) and adding your comments there? Doing this will help us prioritize this request, and you will be notified of any updates.
Best,
Abhishek