I ended up writing a plugin for : Asset Tab Manager - Manage asset tabs, save and load tab sessions, recover previously open tabs - even after a crash!
The plugin remembers your currently open tabs every time a new asset is opened so in the event you aren’t prompted to restore your session by the engine, you can restore what you want from the plugin’s automatic backup.
Furthermore, it remembers all previously opened assets and allows you to create ‘sessions’ made up of specific groups of tabs for your specific task or workflow.