Plugins folder would be common plugins and then a per character plugin folder for custom plugins only needed by those characters.

+1

In addition to different characters having different needs and plugin requirements, GS clearly didn't consider spotter plugins when designing how plugins load or the path they load from and how it would impact secondary characters.

For those that want a temporary workaround, you could create a script that symlinks the plugins directory to a character-specific directory and then starts VO after the plugins directory is redirected.

+1 this is a nuisance

This is unnecessary. Just program your plugins to have per-character on/off settings when they have functionality that needs to vary by character.