Holy smoke Robin! Another Airmanship thread!
Manufacturers are minimising the amount of garbage to do while manouvering on ever busying ramps, so the aeroclub brigade decides that we need to bring back the banter all in the name of "airmanship"??
I once worked for an operator who insisted that part of our TAXI banter included stating out loud that "all instrument glasses were intact"
How about looking at the standby compass during your preflight flows making sure that the float is floating and the seal is sealing and that it aint lying to you?