The best I can think of is to Color Expression Map events, in Preferences>Scores>“Colors for Additional Meanings”, and set it to white (not ideal, if you are using one of the “patterned” paper styles, but certainly less obtrusive 
)
When creating an expression map I accidentally left some set to Attribute instead of Direction. Later I tried to delete those articulation instances in the Key editor. But every time I deleted the articulation the note it was attached to also go deleted. I got out of it by reverting on my project. But for the future I’m curious how to remove the association between an Attribute Articulation and a note.
Strangely enough, instead of using the Eraser tool (which, as you have noticed, deletes the note along with the Attribute), just click a 2nd time on the Attribute, using the Pencil tool again.)