KiCad is not really designed with the flat design principle in mind so your workaround really is the only option right now.
You can use this to your benefit by using the first page as an index of your schematic and add some notes to it to even further improve your documentation. See Hierarchical or flat schematic design, what is best for me? (How to deal with multi page schematics?)
There are requests to allow multiple pages at the same hierarchical level which would allow the hierarchical design principle to be made even more powerful. If this is ever implemented then flat multipage designs will also be made easier to create. See https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/issues/2063