Workaround for offset of linked collection? (Blender 2.8)

Question

Linking

Suppose I have a source .blend file with object "A" within collection "A-Collection", "B" within collection "B-Collection", and "C" within collection "C-Collection", pictured below:

Then I link all three collections, separately, into a single new separate .blend file, pictured below:

Note that for each linked collection, the linking process created a new empty and sortof "parented" the collection to that empty. Presumably that's useful since it allows rotation and translation of the collection within the destination (i.e. "consuming") .blend file, but it seems to be offsetting the empty based on the origin of the source .blend file's axes.

In other words, since "A-Collection" was offset in the source file at x=0, y=-4, and z=-2, it gets imported/linked with a parent empty offset from its geometry by offsets x=0, y=+4, and z=+2.

Question

Is there any way to (1) have it create the empty at the bounding box center (or similar), or (2) manually change the offset of the empty, post-import, to be something more reasonable?

I know I could create a new empty in the consuming file, set its parent to be the linked collection, and use the new empty for rotation, but that approach has the downside of having to find and select the new empty every time I need to rotate, rather than just selecting the collection itself.

edit: Another workaround is to move the linked object to the origin, right-click that linked collection instance in the layers hierarchy, and select "Instance to Scene" to create an instance of the instance. That approach leaves behind the original instance as an unwanted artifact, but it could be moved into a "throwaway" collection and hidden. (still not a great approach, though)

Answer 1

TL;DR: Set offset for a corresponding source collection in properties>object>collections to control where collection will be placed with respect to empty when collection is instanced

It is possible to provide the offset for a selected collections in source file. Offsets can be set for a source collection in Collections Panel of Object Tab of Properties editor

Properties > Object Properties > Collections

If location of collection in source file is 4 units in x axis, then set offset of x (in properties>Object> collections) 4 units. By setting offset we can control how far collection instance will be with respect to it's parent empty(also called Instancer).

Where new collection instances can be create by using add menu or by setting collection in instancer panel of empty object

Collection are the powerful feature introduced in blender 2.8. Blender supports linking nested collections as well. Instancing new collection is equivalent to adding new empty followed by choosing desired collection in instancing panel of object properties.

For collections in action and workflow check the following video from Blender Conference Creating blender demos glowing tigers and tortured creatures - Daniel Bystedt