Default manufacturer's part number field in KiCad libraries

For these fields to make any sense (I take it your motivation to populate them is to create a useful BOM) they either have to be populated in the KiCAD official libraries or each time you place them in your schematic.

Now, having the KiCAD libs come with these fields pre-populated you essentially ask for atomic KiCAD libraries.
Good luck with that one.
Many parts in the libs would multiply by 10-100 or many more parts.. that’s just insane.

If on the other hand you just want this field to be there, alas empty, then for them to be useful you have to fill them every time you place one of these components in your schematic.
Seriously?
What use is that?

So again, what you ask for is either near impossible or just not useful, but if you personally need a field like that you can have it today, for you own personal libs.
Just set up your libs with atomic parts and voila, you got it.

The work needed to cover most possibilities for most users of KiCAD in the official libs is just to overwhelming.
Maybe someone invents/implements an open-source-way of doing this, that will make it possible to have atomic parts that are peer reviewed and 99.5% safe to use without checking, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Just signing up for doing a couple of parts won’t be enough to solve this puzzle.
The infrastructure needs to be there first.. that’s the thing you would need to aim for if you were offering help.

PS: I’m not a dev, just a user who helps moderate this forum and others with the tool.