I propose people practice some other, more important skills before worrying about "dumping weight" It is never a good idea to drop your weights at depth. This will only lead to rapid, out of control ascents. Instead, practice swimming your rig up while "heavy" and/or using alternate bouyancy sources (dry suit, lift bag, buddy’s BC, etc.). Another important skill to practice is monitoring your gas source. Also, practice switching to your secondary gas source (pony, buddy’s reg, etc.) All of these skills will allow you to make a nice controlled ascent. Once at the surface, just orally inflate, or if you still can’t stay afloat for some reason then drop your weights at the surface (try not to drop them on another diver’s head below). This should be an absolute last resort.
As for checking everything ahead of the dive, I’m all for it. If your regs & BC are working properly and your buddy’s are too (and especially if you both have your own gas redundancy and the ability to share each others), there should be no reason to ever get in a situation where you feel the need to "dump" weight and rocket to the surface.