Since Canvas made the very curious choice to take away 'set default grade' for assignments where the instructor has so much as touched the grade column, how are people in large classes handling low-stakes check-in assignments?

Previously, for say a short response check-in to ask about students' understanding of a Canvas, one could have the 'essay' item, go through the gradebook and X off the people who didn't participate, and then use 'set default grade' to issue credit to everyone else since the assignment's purpose was just to check-in (and maybe take attendance while encouraging reflection) and read through quickly in Speedgrader later. 

Now, if one has touched the grading column at all--even with a mistaken click that is undone--the ability to issue default grades is gone.

I have not tried with the overwrite box selected because that does not help. I am seeking to differentiate between people who were present and tried and those were not. 

Others have noted this on here, but I have not seen solutions. I just don't have hours to click through all these assignments. Since this worked until recently, I designed my classes with a ton of these assignments using quick learning checks so I have many grade book boxes needing attention.