I didn't invent that behavior - that's how it works until I introduce a change.  But I agree with you that a mechanism to disable stats collect might be desirable.  Instead of adding a new property, how do you like the idea of having '@off' being added to the list of canned schedules? For example, in the default.yml file, add this line:
stats_refresh_schedules = ['@off']
to turn off the stats collection process.