Renaming elements without activating aliases? Yes we can!
The dimension editor and dimension worksheets cannot rename elements directly, so let me introduce you to SwapAliasWithPrincipalName.

In this example, we will add a padding "0" to an existing set of elements without rebuilding the dimension from scratch.  

Before swap:

Locking cubes is a good way to insure your (meta)data is not tampered with.
Right click on the cube you wish to lock, then select Security->Lock.
This now protects the cube contents from TI process and (un)intentional admins' changes.
However, this makes updating your (meta)data more time consuming, as you need to remove the lock prior to updating the cube.