How to schedule _index.md?

I almost always schedule posts in Hugo by setting the date front matter variable to a future date and time.

But how do I do the same with my _index.md section files?

For instance, /content/topicA/_index.md has this front matter:

---
title: "My section"
date: "2020-02-20"
---

Unfortunately, Hugo already builds this section page. For me that means I have an empty section page, until that section’s posts are published.

(Same behaviour happens with publishDate front matter variable.)

For those interested, I’ve made a feature request to allow scheduling of section pages here: