Although this is not quite what you are asking, maybe $pristineit is what you want? This is a flag on the form indicating whether the form has ever been edited. If someone typed and then cleared the field, $pristineit would still be false.
<form name="myform" ng-submit="doSubmit()" ng-controller="FormController">
<input ng-model="firstName" name="firstName" />
</form>
Then in your controller
.controller('FormController', function($scope){
$scope.doSubmit = function(){
if($scope.myform.$pristine){}
}
})
required="true" $valid , .