As a workaround, you can save a Preset in clean state and call it Clean or Default ?
Then anytime you need to reset all the options just choose the saved "Default" one from Preset menu.
EDIT: Well, it kind of works, but unfortunately not all parameters/options are saved, so even whe you change e.g. "Preserve source start time", hmmm, I just found that it is most of the "checkmark" options that are not part of Preset
So it's not good workaround either, sorry
EDIT2: Sorry, I was too fast and didn't completely read your whole original post where you also describe the same observation as I just did