The crude I solution I went with is:

- in a single folder buid [tag:vrt] for each raster in the list file 
- drag and drop all the `.vrt` onto qgis

I built the vrt files with (CMD shell):

```
for /f %a in (in-tiff-list.txt) do ^
  (gdalbuildvrt staging-folder\%~na.vrt %a)
```

I'll have some more as yet unidentified legwork later to locate the home folder for each of the rasters but this solves the immediate visual need.