Keeping ITIN active / renewal - filing 1040NR nil

Got a question for those who have experience with this:

I am a non resident, have an ITIN and am non ETBUS / no US source income / effectively connected US income. This means in my case I will not need to file form 1040NR since nothing to declare.

However I would like to keep my ITIN active - best case scenario without needing to extend it approximately every 3 years (which is basically almost the same process as applying for a new ITIN).

Several people told me something I had also considered: To file form 1040NR nil with nothing declared. Hence the ITIN would be used and stay active.

But I don't have data on this from the real world. Seems the people who have advised doing this only had the one argument that this would keep the ITIN active but what about possible negative effects?

Is this safe to do? I don't want to create any problems - e.g. the IRS double checking things on my business / assessing if ETBUS / non ETBUS or anything like that.

Are there people here who know if filing 1040NR is common practice and completely harmless?

Would be great to know if this is in fact a viable solution to easily keeping an ITIN active for businesses that are not ETBUS.

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