Kelsey, I think the practice of having actual contact between blade and bedknife has always been something people did when their reel and bedknife were blunt and they didn't want to spring for a re-sharpen. It is like using more pressure on your chainsaw when it gets blunt, instead of sharpening it: it's just a bad idea. After you allow contact the blunting becomes far more severe, and more metal will have to be removed to get it cutting properly. Also, if you continue with actual contact you'll eventually find some of the grass is being pulled instead of cut, due to uneven clearance across the reel.
I recall when I was a kid the guy who cut our lawn at home (using a huge two-clutch ATCO) used frequently to be seen with an oilstone, touching up the front vertical surface of his bedknife. With no contact, and bedknife touch-ups, you can go quite a while between sharpenings (unless you hit a stone of course).
The practice of having blade contact is the sort of thing you expect of people who use rusty Ogden push-mowers and leave them out in the rain between uses.
