I am reading this document
Looking at this line:
(2) Stairways having less than four risers need not have handrails or stair railings.
Is a fair interpretation that on stairs with more than four risers, that I can start the railing on the 3rd step?
I am trying to maintain a clean line of sight in a room where the stair case is centrally located and I am not sure if my argument passes muster.
No. It's all or nothing. Imagine a visually-impaired person (or someone in the dark) coming down your stairs and the rail ends. What's the assumption? That they've reached the bottom. That can end badly.
I agree with @Isherwood: Either a stairway has four or more risers, or it does not. The former requires a rail; the latter does not.
However, you can partially mitigate the visual intrusion of the rails into the space by using a starting step:
