You can even use a hysteretic controller where the switch turns on above a high threshold and stays on until it falls to a low threshold. Can be implemented with just one comparator. As long as the switch is turned on and off cleanly, it doesn't care - and as long as the resistor value is low enough it will control the transients when they occur.

I suspect for most of our machines, the resistor would barely get warm. An LED would be a useful indicator to give some idea if it actually does anything. I might try that on mine some day - it needn't be much more than a resistor and LED across the braking resistor.