readonly textarea with VFE callout

System

I would like to use textarea because readonly has some quirks. So I create a textarea with the following code:

<item name="location_address">
<label>Location Address</label>
<description>Enter the full address to the site. Include the phone and contact information to the location as well.</description>
<textarea required="t" external-editor="visualformat" rows="10" cols="60" external-editor-inline="f" />
</item>

then use FormAPI to make it readonly on load. The problem is that the VFE button disappears when I set it as readonly. Is that a bug or a feature I just don't understand? Does anyone know of a workaround?