Just to qualify my answer a bit (I guess I didn't read the posts that closely), I don't have F5 standing there like F3 would hold an R1. My guy is usually hugging the line three steps or so back and feinting in enough to hold R3 close. IN fact, with 1&3 when playing summer under OBR rules, I often pick to third with idea, not of picking R3, but of going straight to second on a stealing R1. So, that's another sitch where my F5 is close by.
Oh yeah this is definitely OK. This makes sense. In the case of the Cubs and Cardinals - how many times will they run this this year? Probably not enough to truly embrace it as a way of doing things. They are so advanced someone saw or knows something we probably don't that makes it necessary. Doesn't mean we need to adopt it at our lower levels.