OK, after reading several posts, including the ‘dumbest discussion ever’ and the criticisms of others claiming they must throw magazines into the concrete… .
First, if you have extra magazines, such as 2 or 3 for EDC and 3 or 4 for training, sure. drop the mags. If you know how to repair minor damage, drop the mags.
if you train to do tactical reloads, you are not dropping the mag anyway…
So, everybody has an opinion… everyone trains different.
I have dropped mags, and I have not dropped mags.
The question here also must be asked, how many take their vehicle out and drive around in an icy parking lot and skid, slide, brake hard, do everything they might come across on the public road, BEFORE they get on the public road… so they 'know how to react and have the muscle memory.
Yes, training as close to realistic as possible is great, but not always needed, and again, if you damage magazines, they may fail.
So, instead of arguing over dropping or not, point out the differences, the pros and cons of each.
Personally, I do NOT drop mags during training if I can help it, but that does not mean I do not do it.
I have shot in timed competition (years ago and only on a small scale in house manner …including pin shoots … and hitting a bowling pin in a timed effort is NOT always easy.) and have cleared malfunctions and reloaded both magazines and speed loaders with a revolver and discarded the empty magazine or speed loader without pausing to ‘think’ about it… it was a natural action, and I did not always ‘train’ to do it.
Each person is different, each has natural abilities, some can bring the firearm on target naturally, others naturally have trigger control, and each has to work on certain things.
If NOT dropping mags is the complaint from some, perhaps there is no real complaint.
If you have the magazines, and / or you know how to repair them, there is on problem, others… have other concerns