FBM,
The 'spirit' of the regulations is largely an irrelevance. The letter of the law, not the spirit of the law is what matters, and in fact I'm not sure that the spirit of the regulations really does oppose this. You would after all have a valid class rating and would not be acting as PIC with pax while out of landing currency. Flying with a fellow (landings current) group member is quite reasonable.
You can after all achive the same thing flying solo, and no-one is suggesting you should have to carry an instructor for that.