I just found out you can actually kinda do this in 2024. You can’t start cold and dark on an actual runway or helipad but you can select any other spot and then where the runway/parking spot drop down menu is you can actually select cold and dark options. So you can just plop a plane down next to a dirt runway and then select ‘On ground - shut down’ and you’ll spawn there with everything off!
So a workaround but I’l happy with it.
That last one was a bit fiddly as I tried to start as close to the helipad as I could and it kept selecting the actual helipad.