> That said, there's a much simpler way. [...]
Your solution is ingenious. However, how on earth are we mere mortals able to find that? Both `note-columns` and `side-support-elements` are tagged as internal properties, which essentially means "don't touch". Additionally, the documentation is ... scarce, to be polite. I wonder whether it makes sense to encapsulate this functionality into a LilyPond macro, to be provided by default. Or maybe even better: Could this functionality be activated automatically as soon as there is `\override TrillSpanner.outside-staff-priority = ##f`? Werner