Fullwings, I think you are a brave man. Whilst I fully share you common sense and practical approach w.r.t taxi-ing onto an empty stand, if, and it's a big if, you do hit something you're screwed - you won't have a legal leg to stand on. HSE, lawyers, management will come own on you like a ton of bricks...
I'll take that as a compliment! I wasn't suggesting going against the instructions of the BAA or my Company, just that if they left the guidance on permanently and said: "you decide if it's safe", I would be quite happy to take on that responsibility, along with everything else.
If it was a dark and stormy night or foggy or I wasn't quite sure about that baggage container... then of course, I'd wait until it was cleared up. I'm talking about when it's the stand equivalent of CAVOK - why sit there burning fuel?
There are 1,000,000 things you can do in life that might attract the attention of the HSE, lawyers, management and other bottom feeders; an extra one isn't going to make much of a difference. BTW, do you know of anyone who has gone to court over an incident? I thought that above a certain level of damage you got a management post...