You are talking about scraping and pinning the top, not removing it from the plant?
I'd only recommend that as a propagation technique. And it is more appropriate to something like a strawberry or philodendron that is already 'designed' to root without hormone or scraping at any node- the act of scraping and pinning to soil can potentially introduce disease, and if you are interested in air-layering, which is a closely related technique, I'd say use either a sterile, inert medium for the rooting, or a rapid-rooter which is not technically sterile, but has only beneficial bacteria in it.