the other day, i turned my rig power down to zero watts to use it for code practice on 10 meters and then i forgot to dial it back up to 100 when i was done.
Later i could not figure out why i wasnt getting out on SSB on 40 meters 
D'oh!
... i forgot to turn the power back up. 
there should be a way to turn off your vox without having to reduce the power output.
Of course there is. The break in/VOX button has 3 states OFF, Semi-break in, Full-break in. Just like nearly every other transciever ever made. In the CW mode with break in set to OFF, you have sidetone but no key up of the rig at all and no power. The second thing is depending on where the RF gain control is you can mix that sidetone with band noise or not, and you can easily adjust the sidetone level also via the touchscreen.
Negative. My rig has a VOX (Voice Operated Xmit) on or off button with menu settings for VOX Gain, Anti-VOX, and VOX HangDelay, but NONE of these settings affect CW operation.
My rig has a completely separate menu setting for QSK Delay (from nearly 0 to 2.6 seconds). I can adjust the sidetone frequency and volume via menus as well.
One other thing i can do if i want to send CW with sidetone but no output is to turn the transmitter on or off via a menu setting. But as with turning the power down, if i do that and then fail to re-adjust the setting back when i am done, i may still go thru some dummy moments before i realize why i am not getting out
