Hi Bryan,
Yes, the warning it there for a reason, because if you will change the XML settings, the whole WebPart can be broken and this can affect the functionality of your website. I would recommend you to back-up the original settings, e.g. in some text file, because there is no versioning used or any other way of going back after the changes are saved.
There is no "solved" button, but you can confirm some post as "accepted solution" (take a look at
Ondrej Vasils blog - DevNet Improvements vol. 2), but good point, we will consider this functionality in the future version. Thank you for your suggestion!
Best regards,
Martin Danko