https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T135667, aka "Please put templates on separate lines (when it won't break things) and don't (when it will)" was just resolved. This means templates will now behave as you really wanted them to. James has helpfully added documentation at https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:TemplateData#Custom_formats. It is already marked for translation, in case you're interested. Bye!
