OP wanted to be able to print in B/W mode when out of color ink. Ostensibly, the tracking dots' purpose was to stop currency counterfeiting, so they were only ever added on color printers (not B/W ones).

Therefore, not being able to display the dots shouldn't be an obstacle to the printer operating in B/W mode, as it would effectively be a B/W printer in that case. The more likely explanation is simply that HP wants to sell more overpriced color ink.

Interestingly, the Reality Winner documents were actually in color: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NSA_Report_on_Russia_Spea...