I take advantage of this feature by using:
" ~/.vim/syntax/tex.vim:
setlocal conceallevel=2
let g:vimtex_syntax_custom_cmds = [{'name': 'keyw', 'mathmode': 0, 'argstyle': 'boldital' , 'conceal': 1}]
This should conceal \keyw in the following:
% test.tex
\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\begin{document}
\keyw{Piecewise \textbf{test} splines}
\end{document}
Unfortunately, the presence of \textbf{test} messes up the concealment, as seen in the screenshot

I have used the standard minimal.vim for testing.