You'll be aware that you can save custom toolbar, shortcuts and menus with a custom workspace, but I was not aware that Preference settings could be included.

One thing that does happen is that if you are in the Start workspace with no documents open, and hit the Escape key, that takes you back to whatever workspace you have set. You can test this by opening a new document (anything will do) and closing it. That should take you back to the Start workspace, so long as that is how it is set in Preferences.
Note: I have just tried different workspaces, and always see the Start workspace in all of them when no documents are open.
