Hi

If the main concern is lining up the parameters, I've seen somebody deal with this by having a fake parameter and then making the default value "DO NOT USE"

It kinda looks a bit funky but satiates the OCD.

Another couple of options to think about are making a parm Internal or Hidden, that will remove it from the dependency chain.

Allow NULL is the other option that might help you, if you don't have that ticked then yes your parm must have a value entered.

Which version of SSRS and BIDS are you using? I have 2005/2008/2008R2 servers but I use the BIDS from the 2008R2 disk to deploy to all of those.