Maybe I am misunderstanding you somehow, but you can turn off Issues without archiving a repository, I have several like that. If I attempt to navigate to `/issues`, it redirects me to `/pulls`. And the Issues tab is not visible whatsoever.
Have you tried `/settings` -> Features -> [ ] Issues ?
History disappears, which is a bit annoying if ppl have invested energies there. I'd personally prefer it possible to lock them without archiving nor making them disappear from the internet :)
Is it an intended that a history disappears, though? I would assume most people wouldn’t expect it to happen when they disable new issues (for instance - temporarily because of taking a break from a project)
Have you tried `/settings` -> Features -> [ ] Issues ?