Stop treating blanks as zeros

I think this question is misleading. Excel doesn't treat blanks as zeros, certain functions do that depending on the way you build your formulas.

It is not a workaround to test if a cell is blank, it is necessary depending on the functions you are employing. So I think the answer to your question is "no". You will always have to specifically decide how to treat empty cells based on the formulas you are constructing. It's not always necessary to do so.

What you're calling a problem is actually the diverse nature of the program at your disposal.

If you have a specific formula you find troublesome, post it as a new question to see if there is perhaps an alternate method to your goal. More diversity!

(added as an answer as requested).

The result of this "diverse nature" (colorful adjectives are not solutions and just wreaks of fanboy or paid representative), is that charting blank cells leads to ugly 0s. In that respect, MS Excel is indeed treating blank cells as zeros.