What those programs are likely actually doing is not deliberately resetting the attributes, but saving a file by (1) writing to a new file, and (2) moving the n

What those programs are likely actually doing is not deliberately resetting the attributes, but saving a file by (1) writing to a new file, and (2) moving the new file over the old file (thus destroying anything about the old file that they aren't aware of in the process.) Not sure if this helps figure out a way around it.