[nednednerb]

Another possibility is tapping the down (or up) arrow which will de-select and put the playhead at either end of the small selection made by clicking then slightly dragging.

Thus, whenever you try to place the playhead/cursor, a tap on the arrow before playback should work.

If you did not drag slightly after clicking, the up or down arrow won't typically bug anything, so it's just a fail safe if you do make a selection. If you did not, the arrow button press is just redundant and should be no problem.

Grid mode and trackball are what work best for me, but I sometimes do this anyway just by not remembering always to raise my fingers entirely from the ball.