Dear musicmaven,
We know that everything will change in the next weeks with the forthcoming version, concerning Note spacing…
Right now, why not input a bigger meter (that will imply more room) for the empty bars, and hide it ? I would try this direction…
[Edit] I have let the meter flag visible so that you understand what I have done
And by the way, not tweaking on note spacing at all here ! Only force duration (o) and then input three whole rests on the last two bars, then hid them using the transparency workaround