Limited gyro time but when flying flexwings I always believed that the most dangerous parts of any flight are the unstick and touchdown.
The wheel balancing whilst I understand some of its benefits put the student in the vey high risk part of takeoff, highly at risk from gusts or minor over controls where there may not be room or time for correction
In my opinion wheel balancing is how a gyroplane tells the pilot when she is ready to fly.
In my opinion planting the nose during takeoff can lead to the rotor not accelerating normally and increasing the acceleration of the aircraft.
I feel too much air speed for the rotor rpm combined with back cyclic is what causes the retreating blade to stall and the advancing blade to sail.
With hard linked steering planting the nose can lead to confusion about what the rudder is doing.
Most of the pilots operating handbooks I have seen recommend wheel balancing.
Once wheel balancing is achieved I teach clients to progressively bring the cyclic forward as the rotor rpm and airspeed increase to keep the tire near the ground until liftoff.
In my opinion a properly set up gyroplane will lift off when it is ready near Vx when wheel balancing is done well.
For some wheel balancing is a challenging skill to learn and they look for a short cut like planting the nose on takeoff or some predetermined cyclic position.
The NTSB has recorded many takeoff mishaps from uncomanded rotor divergence. In the most basic terms, too much airspeed for the rotor rpm combined with bringing the cyclic too far back for the rotor rpm and airspeed.
In The Predator the I put in full throttle above 180 rotor rpm and the nose will come up somewhere around two hundred rotor rpm and the cyclic is progressively moved forward as airspeed and rotor rpm increases.
I will not approve solo flight for a pilot who cannot keep the nose tire just off the runway (less than an inch) for the duration of the takeoff roll.