You are expecting Plex to behave like a glorified file browser.
This is precisely what Plex is not. It has a wholly different philosophy towards exploring and interacting with your media collection. For people who always thought in folder structures, it is sometimes hard to adapt
That being said, I have “prefer local meta tag” activated in my library as well.
When I put something into the Album Title meta tag, I can see it verbatim in Plex.
e.g. Need help sorting albums with same name - #2 by OttoKerner
And yes, each album version can have its own individual album art.
