Posted about this issue around 10 years ago, but it's been really driving me up the wall today so I figured I'd moan about it afresh.
Being able to have audio waveforms visible in your timeline alongside keyframes etc is wonderful. Most of my work relies on tight integration with music cues, so being able to show a layer's audio and make that waveform nice and big so I can see the hit points is essential.
Sometimes the hit points are audible but not clearly visible in the waveform, so I generate a metronome audio track as well and drop that into the comp — that way I can see the hit points. Don't want to hear it, just see the waveform.
Or I'll have a preview version of some audio (maybe something with SFX in it) and I want to line up better samples in AE for a quick turnaround.
The issue: if a layer has the audio switched off/muted (the speaker switch), the waveform completely disappears. So if you need to see the waveform for any reason, you can't avoid hearing it too.
Request: for disabled/muted audio layers, can you consider just greying the waveform out slightly, but not making it invisible.
The fact the waveform correctly represents changes/animations on the Audio Level parameter is nice — you can see fades etc — but if the track's muted/disabled, there's no need to completely hide the waveform ... and in some cases it makes life a little harder.
For now I mute and unmute and mute and unmute and every now and again accidentally render with that guide track unmuted and then have to replace the audio in the rendered file afterwards.
Anyway, I've finished moaning... you've got another 10 years before I'll bang on about it again