I have a program in Python that makes extensive use of the line feed character to produce the effect of an updating console line (specifically a progress bar).
When
I recently ran into the same problem, and found a solution. The answer is actually in your post. As you said, the carriage return deletes the whole line. To avoid the issue, print the carriage return only when you print the new line, like so:
Print each line with the carriage return at the start, and without the default end='\n'. Didn't need the flush, though I didn't do much testing.
print('\rxxx', end='')
# sys.stdout.flush()
time.sleep(1)
Continue like this...
print('\rZZ', end='')
time.sleep(1)
print('\ryyy', end='')
time.sleep(1)
To keep the last printout, keep the default end.
print('\r===')
Hope this works for you.
Frank