Is there a builtin way to make a barline invisible?
Yes, it is.
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For a single invisible barline choose a tick bar line and hide the tick in Engrave Mode in the properties
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For a selectable persistent invisible barline divert the dashed barline and set the dash length in Engraving Options > Barlines to zero. Of course then a dashed barline isn’t available anymore.
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Note that once you set one tick barline that way, subsequent tick barlines that you add will inherit the same properties.
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I suppose, then, that in an orchestral score, for example, this type of bar line should be assigned to a single staff only.
But all this is just a workaround.
Perhaps we can hope for the introduction of invisible bar lines among the options currently available (as offered by Sibelius or Finale). In Dorico 7?
This discussion (which we already had a couple of times) brings me to the question again: what does an invisible barline mean in a musical context? What does it represent? If we can answer this question, there might be a way for Dorico to interpret it.
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The only time I’ve used an invisible barline is in the rare case where I need swing playback to begin mid-measure. Swing playback only takes effect at a barline, so under normal circumstances when you change from straight to swing in the middle of a measure the swing playback doesn’t actually start there — it starts at the next barline.
What I’ve done to get around this is add an invisible barline mid-measure where I want the swing playback to begin, change the time signature at the invisible barline as needed and hide it, and then adjust the note spacing in engrave mode to account for the unwanted spacing around the invisible barline. Works great.
Not sure what they mean in a musical context, but I have bars that are broken across staves every day (hymns, and plainchant transcriptions). The only want to get note-spacing handles at the end of a stave is to have a barline, so I have to add ticks and hide them.
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Is that correct? If you change the Note Input Preference to allow breaks within bars surely the note spacing handles remain?
The large handles that indent the stave remain, but the smaller handles that allow you to push/pull notes relative to the right edge disappear, hence the need for a false barline.
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In Brahms’s case, of course, it would be of no use whatsoever.
But for many contemporary composers, this feature would add a great deal of flexibility when entering their scores.
Still don’t understand: what flexibility would be added? Why not just have no barline?
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In the case of large score, this would make it easy to hide a barline in just one stave. I know Dorico can do this sort of thing, but it involves a very complicated process. Finale had this bar line feature which, when combined with the Staff Style, could work wonders.
It is easy to apply a local time signature in Dorico - and this does indeed have a musical meaning.
And “who is Finale?”
Perhaps one of the neighbours who lives beyond your garden. 
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Here’s an example: an exercise for my son’s class, which he created in Finale, of course…
Tanzscene Corr2.pdf (21,5 Ko)
Pupils must reconstitute all the rhythm, during listening the audio CD.
An exercise…
NB : this is an excerpt of the Serenade op.24 by Schœnberg.