I'll outline what I have working so far.

I can successfully create the launchers themselves in ~/.local/share/applications . I basically take the default Chrome launcher, copy it into that folder, open the .desktop file in a text editor, and add --profile-directory="PROFILE_NAME" to each of the "Exec" lines. I then save and mark the file as executable. I can successfully double click those files and have an icon appear in the launcher, which I can then lock to the launcher.

The problem arises when I already have one profile open and then try to click the other launcher icon to open the second profile. That second profile does open properly, but the new window groups itself with the launcher icon that was open first. So I basically have two Chrome launcher icons visible, but instead of each one appearing open with one window I am left with one launcher icon with 2 windows and the other inactive.

Is there a way to change this behavior? Thanks.