I think a setting on the Song properties to disable record mode is a good idea.
This doesn’t come up for me very often because I’m usually constructing every part of a performance on the fly, however sometimes I save a song with all it’s recorded parts and use it in more of a backing track style where no new parts or tracks will be added. As I switch around the parts or mute tracks though, it’s easy to make a mistake and begin recording.
It doesn’t wreck the song, I just don’t save it. But it can cause a bit of confusion and fumbling around to Undo and course correct in the middle of a performance.
An extra benefit of this is it streamlines a bit of the mechanics of switching parts and tracks. Logically, if record wasn’t enabled, there would be no reason to have the cursor land on empty parts or tracks.