You can fly above a layer of cloud without surface in sight during a VFR flight, I'm pretty sure of that. But, doing that means you cant assure a safe visual decent clear of the cloud layer when you reach your destination which equals suicide surely?
What you describe has been legal practice by non instrument rated pilots in the US forever. Pilots have found that radioing ahead for weather data is often useful when committing to a segment of VFR on top. It can be equally useful to have local knowledge - for instance to know that while the coast is often fogged in, a few miles inland it rarely is. You surely don't fly VFR on top without proper consideration, but that doesn't make it an intrinsically dangerous practice. Just like VFR at night.
An ATP-rated friend of mine did a couple of hundred miles VFR on top last summer in a fast aerobatic aircraft with no gyro instruments. He did have on-board weather on his portable GPS and a cloud free desert ahead. When asked what he'd do in the event of an engine failure, the answer was "I'd jump out" Do they train you for that when you get your ATP?
