A dedicated, atomic dummy node would be very useful, and less tacky than using something like a levels node as a dummy node. It should have a dynamic input (like most atomic nodes), and a single parameter to manually change the output type to color or gray. It should still have mipmaps, like most other atomic nodes.
In addition, you (Adobe) could use this node to automatically convert an input to gray or color type, instead of using gradient map and grayscale conversion nodes.
Lastly, the node should be called "Dummy", its icon should be the silhouette of a crash test dummy's head, and its description should definitely be something to the effect of "this node does nothing... and that's the point!"
THANK YOU!!!