rowRender - prevent from rendering the row

I'm trying to prevent headerGroup rows from rendering based on certain conditions.

When I try to utilize rowRender for this purpose, I can't make it work because it controls only the render of cells within the row. Returning null and <td></td> don't work (the row still renders but with nothing in it or with empty cells).

Is there any way I can target the row instead of the cells? I would even take being able to simply add a class to the row to hide it from the user with CSS.

I can't target the row with the row:empty CSS selector because the groupHeader rows come with k-group-cell cells already rendered before the renderRow even starts rendering custom cells.

Did I overlook anything that Kendo offers? Thank you!