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After receiving a gmail invitation for an event that I plan to attend, I like to duplicate the event and then change the times to include my travel to and from the event, add a destination address, add my own notes, etc. ... and then delete the automatically created event, leaving only my own version. HOWEVER, when I do that, this changes my "will you attend" response from Yes to No, which can confuse the organizer and other attendees. Is there a way around this?

Note: I know I can edit the automatically created event (with those changes showing only on my calendar) but my understanding is that my edits disappear whenever the organizer makes a change to the event.

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In Google Calendar there is no way to have a Google Account as an attendee while also not having the event attached to that Google account's calendar.

Updates

You point out that event updates made by the owner will take priority over an attendee's updates.

What isn't noted in your question is that duplicating then deleting the event leaves you with the opposite problem. Event updates made by the owner will not update your duplicated event.

If concern for updates factors in to your calculus, concern for the loss of owner updates should take precedence. At the end of the day one should always have the event owner's current version.

Visual Noise

There are solutions for Chrome Desktop that visually merge duplicate events. For example, this Chrome extension Extensions > Event Merge for Google Calendar™ also on Github at imightbeamy/gcal-multical-event-merge.

Extensions > Event Merge for Google Calendar™
When using Google Calendar™ you may have one event on multiple calendars. For instance on your work and personal calendar, on your work calendar and your team's shared calendar, or on many co-work's calendars. These can clutter up your calendar and make it hard to read. This extension merges all those separate events into one event, and gives it stripes with all the individual calendars' colors.

I have used the extension for several years and it works very well and can be toggled on and off. Changing the title or address might cause it to see the events as different, but you can edit the descriptions.

The code is available on GitHub and the GNU GPL license allows modification. One could tweak the extension's code to ignore addresses, and other things.

Main Fork is Out of Date

The main fork hasn't been updated in many (many) years but that hasn't been a problem for me. Others who have run into various issues with the old version have been directed to HCAWN's fork that was updated a few months ago on Github HCAWN/gcal-multical-event-merge as well as Google Extensions > Cal Merge for Google Calendar™

Event Merge for Google Calendar™

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  • Thank you for your thoughtful answer. These are family events and, at least for my personal situation, I am not concerned about changes made on the host's calendar, although I do understand the theoretical risk of a host making a change and not sending an email reflecting their update (i.e., the risk of them performing a 'silent' update).
    – JDSailing
    Nov 22, 2022 at 19:42
  • It seems like one should be able to control what appears on one's own calendar without also confusing the host. Most definitely a first world problem but perhaps someday a solution will reveal itself. Thanks again for your reply.
    – JDSailing
    Nov 22, 2022 at 19:53
  • Another, less than ideal option is to copy those events onto a secondary calendar, and then hide one or the other.
    – Blind Spots
    Nov 22, 2022 at 20:19
  • If I answered your question (I know it wasn't what you wanted to hear ;-) Consider accepting and/or upvoting it. See What should I do when someone answers my question?
    – Blind Spots
    Nov 22, 2022 at 20:25
  • Blind Spots Thank you for your reply but I don't see how to "hide" an event in my Google Calendar. I tried googling "hide in Google Calendar" but did not find anything that looked relevant. Could you kindly elaborate?
    – JDSailing
    Nov 23, 2022 at 22:22

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