Interesting, thank you for the elaboration.  

Happy to report that the workaround you suggested is working.  I set it for 10 seconds less than screen timeout.

workstation.product.version = "15.1.0"

# Set the following (seconds) to slightly lower than the host screen lock timeout.

# This is a workaround for the problem of host timed screen lock blocked by vmware

# workstation 15, Suggested by bonnie201110141 on vmware communities July 11 2019.

# 15m = 900s

mks.screenSaverTimeout = "890"