Well, the only dead zone you need is for tuning finding the 0 spot, but since you already have a "reverse" button... why not reuse that as a "0" button, stop moving the throttle, and hit the 0 button, and you should now come to a halt.
I have the option to have a adjustable curves for my throttle, so near the middle, it has very low sensivitivy, meaning, I have to move the throttle mover near the center, and when I get close to the min/max settings, I have less granularity, but in combat, there are usually only 0%, 50% or 100% (and also the reverse) that are interesting. Anyway, this allows me to have a small dead zone, with an extended range for when dealing with low speeds manoeuvring, like scooping stuff, docking, etc.
I found several tips for my throttle (CH Products PRo Throttle), where you use velcro to give you a mechanical feedback of what the centre is... and depending on what throttle you have this might be a working solution aswell. I have now get used to this, that I now instictively know where the center is, just by how i rest my palm on the base on the throttle.
