Setting the VariantEditContext so that UI (lookdevx) changes apply

[PolyShifter]

Hi there, I'm a bit new to USD, but have been diving into VariantSets.

From what I have seen, it is difficult to come to a consensus on how Variants should be handled in Maya.
I was wondering if there was any way to "enter" or "open" the vset.GetVariantEditContext() manually, so that changes in your maya scene (and currently selected stage) would apply to the variantSet.

IE:

file_path = ""
stage = Usd.Stage.Open(file_path)
my_prim = stage.GetPrimAtPath("/Hello/World")
variant_set = my_prim.GetVariantSet("shadingVariant")
variant_set.AddVariant("default")
variant_set.AddVariant("red")
variant_set.SetVariantSelection("red")
ctx = variant_set.GetVariantEditContext()
ctx.__enter__()
# start doing some changes in the maya ui
ctx.__exit__(None, None, None)

The above doesn't work, and I'm sure it would be ill advised even if it did.
But it's the only way I can describe the idea. The other option was to set the active stage's EditTarget to the VariantEditTarget:

# continuing from above (without the ctx)
editTarget = variant_set.GetVariantEditTarget()
stage.SetEditTarget(editTarget)

I know there are ways to author VariantSet's from python, but generally artists don't use python to do their work.
The best practice I could think of, from my limited knowledge, would be to set your stage you have your VariantSet on, to be the active stage. Then get the EditTarget from your VariantSet that you want to target, and set that as your stage's EditTarget so the changes are written under that stage, to that VariantSet.

It would be great to be able to just set the VariantSet's context in the UI, so you can make adjustments to your shaders, or maybe assignments, or w/e else. Ideally you would also have this tracked either in the USD Layer Editor, or perhaps the active panel as a HUD display, so you know what VariantSet you are targeting when you are on you are making edits to a stage that has VariantSets.

Apologies for being very high level about this, I don't know the depths of USD well, this is just from one Asset TD's perspective that is new to USD.