As far as I can tell, you're absolutely correct in your analysis - you need to use hidden devices.

As for relinking, ideally you do that before importing your CCF into PENG, since you can move the panels into hidden devices inside Tonto without breaking the links. This way, there's no need to relink the panels.

Hopefully we will eventually have a way to remap the up/down buttons to other purposes, since not everyone will want this functionality available.