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"
