Multiple links of the same rig (and meshes) controlled independently from one another

This has been asked several times on these forums over the years with no actual solution, but I’ll ask again just in case there’s a solution now.

I have a rigged character that I need to link into a scene multiple times and animate. Each instance needs a different animation, however every proxy controls every other proxy. Making a ‘Single User’ is ‘Not yet implemented’. I thought maybe I could make the animation a ‘single user’, but I’m not sure how to do that or if that would even work either.
Any ideas on how to control each rig proxy separately?

Yes, I can duplicate the .blend file or duplicate the character and rig inside the .blend file, but that rather defeats the purpose of linking. I hope this is still not the only solution.

EDIT:
Well, I’m going forward with using linked duplicates within the source .blend file. This seems an odd oversight in Blender development and I hope it is addressed sooner rather than later.