Persistent Variables - Set $Var

The idea is: Persistent Variables - $Var

My use case: Referencing dynamic data between nodes & branches.

There should be an easy and straightforward way to Set a variable, and reference that from anywhere else within the workflow, whether the node is directly connected or not.

Examples:

On form submit, set an “$email” that can be called anywhere else in the workflow
Before executing parallel research, set a “$UID” so a google sheet can be updated by matching a UID field
Set a $FavouriteAnimal so that later in a workflow a branch can be executed or skipped if $FavouriteAnimal = “Cat”

I thought this was what the Set node was intended for, but it seems I am mistaken.

I think it would be beneficial to add this because:

Currently you can only reference the data from a Set node, if that node is in the direct path of where you are trying to set it from. Now with the new data tables, a workaround seems to be to create a Variables table and just use it to set and retrieve workflow variables. But its not an elegant solution and causes unnecessary bloat.

Any resources to support this?

Are you willing to work on this?