Hi @Ace n K, thanks for coming back to me, much appreciated. My HR haven't been as helpful as I would have liked (i'm basically having to dig all this out myself!) so i'm glad we have been able to share experiences here. Regarding extending visas for your family once they arrive, I found this link which might be helpful and could address your particular concern:
https://www.dohaguides.com/family-visa-in-qatar-requirements-documents/

Unfortunately it's not from any official source, but the content seems to check out with a couple of friends in Qatar who I spoke with regarding this.

Please do let me know how your RP processing goes - from what i've been told, things apparently move faster once you are on the ground so would be keen to hear how long it takes you to get the QID - fingers crossed for you!

As for me, i'm going to push my company to get us to travel together from UK -> Germany -> Qatar, with a 10-day stopover in Germany. Would you happen to know if we need to have hotel bookings for my family arranged and uploaded on Ehteraz (as presumably we all will fall under tourists)? Or will just a negative PCR + Vaccination certificates suffice?

thanks again!