I truly do not wish to put words in your mouth but, it sounds like you saying that if you show up on shift and there is some indication that some other person may have carried out a preflight inspection at some time in the last 24 hours then it is ok to jump in, kick it in the guts and go?
How can you choose to ignore that part of the flight manual?? What other items in the flight manual does your company culture choose to ignore?