How many flying schools teach takeoff with 10 deg of flap in a 172 these days on a bitumen runway?
I was doing that, back in the '80s (in a warrior, but same same) even though the POH said zero flap. The reason we did it was to get students used to after take off checks and thinking about retracting flap, but there was always a discussion point about it with the student at some point.
I say follow the POH, no one has ever shown me personally a POH procedure that makes me feel like if I do that I'm going to kill myself...
True - but you have to understand that the manufacturer has a slightly different goal than the pilot flying their machines. The manufacturer has to pass certification AND has to produce the best set of performance numbers to sell the aircraft. That's why there was a "short field landing" technique lesson in the PPL syllabus - because the "normal" landing was at a higher speed than the POH speeds. The POH speeds WERE a short field landing - so they could sell a maximum landing weight/minimum runway performance.
That which the test pilot has shown is "safe", and the manufacturer is happy is "the best performance this aircraft can show" is not necessarily the easiest way to fly, the softest landing nor the best engine cooling/gear & brake life etc. etc.
... or nose wheel life, for that matter, to bring it back to the thread - if you are flying a type with a particularly fragile nose wheel on unprepared surfaces.