I've taken to opening my Raws in Photoshop / Adobe Camera Raw. If you hold down SHIFT when you open the Raw in ACR it will embed the Raw as a Smart Object in a PSD. (Check to see the "Open" button in ACR change to "Open as Object") This means I can make some ACR edits, save the PSD and the edits are non-destructive. I can go back in later and tweak if necessary or reset all the settings back to default. I like the controls of Lightroom, but the way LR and LRC manage files is so exasperating for me, personally, that I prefer this route. (I'm, of course, happy to use PM Plus as my catalog, so it works out well.)
Working with Smart Objects embedded in PSDs like this also means if I make an edit to the PSD and save it, Photo Mechanic sees the changes to the thumbnail without having to save out a separate JPG or export metadata. PM can also export a JPG from the PSD via "Save as..." and "Send via AirDrop" (when it comes back) when used on PSD will automatically send an updated JPG to my phone without having to save one out separately. The Uploader in PM will also create JPGs automatically from my PSDs when I send them to Flickr.
All workflows have tradeoffs. The main downside to this workflow from my perspective is that if I need to add/tweak metadata with PM, it will be noticeably slower when working with PSDs (It's a much more complex file format for PM to manage and keep everything where it needs to be). So I try to get as much of the metadata work done before I get into editing the pixels.
Hope some of this is useful for you.
Mick
