edward
Another approach could be storing all the configurations that you want for the entire sequence that you want to play back. Sort of like feeding a motionclip into the rig and telling it where to playback in the motionclip.
I get where you going with your thinking here…but, to me, we might as well keyframe everything and play that back, or its very similar to exactly as you described, KineFX + MotionClip(s).
When the FabricEngine guys wanted to get into rigging, I challenged Helge to the same standard, a Rubix Rig/Dynamic Parenting. What Helge came up with was exactly that, but, (as I’m trying to do here), it (the solution) had more utility than just a Rubix Rig. Helge showed the solution using a roller coaster - one control in viewer state twisted the tracks + all cars on the tracks, while another control in viewer state moved the cars along the track: demonstrating, the parent/pivot of the cars was based on the active control.
The innovation here is: proximal parenting in APEX
But Yes, you need a way to persist the manipulation across the timeline, cuz, no matter what, the end result is an animation.