(I used org-submit-bug-report, but this is a feature request.) It would be nice to have a special property like ITEM without the leading stars, which is annoying in, e.g., the agenda column view.
I imagine that this will be easy to implement. There may be some UI implications (confusing in some contexts?) and the property name needs to be chosen. If this is a bad idea, please let me know. Emacs : GNU Emacs 26.1 (build 1, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.22.24), modified by Debian Package: Org mode version 9.1.14 (9.1.14-1040-gf33fa9-elpaplus @ mixed installation! /usr/share/emacs/26.1+gg1+14/lisp/org/ and /usr/local/google/home/ayatane/.emacs.d/elpa/org-plus-contrib-20181125/)