This is cannot be achieved when I have items in inventory. Even if I place the items using shift + LMB, when I run out of items, the hand is emptied.
This leads to situations like this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNYF_V51h_g&t=10 (a video recorded specially for you

The behaviour I would expect when "Pick ghost item if no items are available" is enabled, is that once I run out of items, the item held in the hand is replaced with its ghost, so I can continue placing the items that will be constructed by robots later.