No. The SVG rendering model for background accumulation buffers (used for filter input) starts with a transparent buffer and provides no way to paint anything into that buffer before objects are rendered into it. It never includes the page color. The only way to pre-paint opaque pixels to the buffer before objects are rendered into it is to give them an opaque sibling at the very bottom (i.e. something like a "backstop rectangle").
Besides a rect, another option might be an empty group with an feFlood filter applied with the filter effect area being the document dimensions.
No. The SVG rendering model for background accumulation buffers (used for filter input) starts with a transparent buffer and provides no way to paint anything into that buffer before objects are rendered into it. It never includes the page color. The only way to pre-paint opaque pixels to the buffer before objects are rendered into it is to give them an opaque sibling at the very bottom (i.e. something like a "backstop rectangle").
Besides a rect, another option might be an empty group with an feFlood filter applied with the filter effect area being the document dimensions.