modifiers like mask, Surface Deform should have option "use in modeling" vs "use in rendering"

I would like to use fewer, invisible vertices in rendering to help in render performance, yet use these vertices in pre-render modeling. I believe some option like "use in modeling" would be in addition to "visible in render"

As an example, I have a character file with various wardrobe outfit meshes (e.g., tank top, t-shirt, sport-shirt) where I use Surface Deform (instead of armature parent) to the character mesh -- SD ensures that I have no character skin "peek through" when the armature is in more extreme poses.

For the character, when I select to include a SD shirt, I would then like to mask those vertices under the shirt area, from rendering, as I know they will not be used. So I set up a mask-enable driver based on enabling the shirt:

However, when these are enabled, they interfere with the Surface Deform of the shirt to the character, as these masked vertices are no longer available for modeling, and of course the shirt no longer maintains its form during armature animation.

So one possible idea is to have another property to enable the mask only for rendering, but not during modeling/animation.

Here is my blender.stackexchange posting on this same topic.