pg_ctl reload -o "...."

If I want to change a parameter that affects an auxiliary process
(like bgwriter), I can usually get away with doing;

pg_ctl restart -o '--setting=new'

But sometimes I really need to avoid the restart, because it blows
away shared_buffers or for other reasons.

I can do pg_ctl reload, but that ignores the -o option (without
notice). So to go the reload route, I have to edit "postgresql.conf"
before doing the reload. This is quite tedious and error-prone,
especially in a script.

Is there a reason pg_ctl reload shouldn't honor -o ? Is there
reasonable avenue to get it do so?

Cheers,

Jeff