Practically availability of 'eject' command for CD/DVD drive doesn't depends on media status. But thunar displays device manage string only if media presents in drive. I don't like to use physical 'eject' button on drive. Now to connect CD I have to do: 1. eject in terminal to open drive; 2. Put a media; 3. eject -t in terminal to load media (unavailable for slim-type drives); 4. Wait for a time and click in thunar to mount media. It will be pretty, if drive manage string will present permanently and steps 1, 3 could be done by mouse click in drive manage icon in thunar. P.S. Choice between eject and umount, like described in https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7610 is also wanted.
Closing as won't fix. The device entry is only shown when media is present. Alternate solution for you: Assign eject command to a keyboard shortcut.