So, a 120 v.receptacle does not technically have a neutral, but rather a grounded conductor because there is not unbalanced current.
Technically it does have a neutral. The "neutral" is a center tap on a transformer or generator winding. A "neutral" does not have to be bonded to earth for the circuit to work from an electrical standpoint. Bonding to earth creates the "grounded" conductor. If you removed the bonding jumper the circuit would still work.
The bonding to earth(grounding) of the "neutral" is done/
required by NEC to (equally) limit the phase potential(voltage) to earth, and to provide a safe low resistance return path(through other conductive parts bonded to the grounding system) for fault current.
Would a balanced 240 load even have use for a neutral conductor?
If you have two hots (on 240) do you have to have a neutral. Is it just like in 3phase motor loads where if its a balanced load then you dont need the neutral unless there is some sort of timer etc.
All
240 volt single phase loads would only use the two ungrounded phase conductors.
Two balanced
120 volt loads of 10 amps each on opposite phase legs would result in the voltage at this load midpoint(neutral) to be zero in respect to the transformer center(neutral) tap. Hence no current would flow in this "neutral". Whether a "neutral" is required depends upon the equipment and the circuit design.
Two 10 ohm 120 volt rated loads could be connected in series in a 240 volt circuit. These devices would not know that the neutral conductor was missing. This is essentially what happens in a multiwire branch circuit when the loads are perfectly balanced(the imbalance is zero, there is no voltage from the load midpoint to transformer center, so the neutral current is zero)
The examples above assume purely resistive loads.