The PA28's we have at my old training feild have two different switches, on one aircraft there is a single strobe/beacon, the other has a split switch both are Archer II's. We have different procedures for both
Beacon on for startup, strobes on for the run up. which is normally done near to the hold point for each runway. In the place i'm flying from now its the same thing, except the run up area is further from the Hold points.
I would say stobes on near the apron would be annoying in twilight/night.
I had an instructor who would turnthe beacon off in the taxi because he hated the noise in the headset!!!! go figure. I love uncontrolled airfeilds :-)