Well it seems to you there is more than just the rating. You'd like to get into the next round right?
I don't know what the site thinks about "grandmaster draws"
I don't play in chess.com tournaments so I can't relate to the sentiment. I've done a "GM draw" at a tournament once before, last round of the day and I was tired. We played about 25 moves of a french exchange... exchange all the minors, and I offered my lower rated opponent a draw and he accepted. I got to bed early that night. I also ended up losing some rating points after the tourney was over.
So anyway, if your opponent is lower rated you could try some tactic like that and no one can complain ;)
If you were pretty sure (or better yet, positive) that drawing a tnmt game would insure you getting into the next rd of the tnmt, would you do so even if you lost some rating pts in doing so? I'm wondering if playing hard to win is worth the effort if it cuts into my thinking time the rest of my games; on the other hand, since we're not playing for cash prizes it seems to me that rating pts are about the only reward that matters - aside from finishing 1st, 2nd or 3rd for a trophy. And yes, not cheating and trying play well matter too!
As a related question, is there any rule vs "GM draws" here ie will chess.com not recognize draws in games that haven't reached x number of moves? I've never drawn a game in under 18 moves here - and my short draws actually looked drawish or at least dead = to me at any rate.