As I understand it, the 'lever trick' is carried out with everything in it's normal position. The whole purpose is to apply pressure to the system for a long period (say overnight). The pressure compresses any air bubbles in the system making them much smaller and so more likely to migrate upwards to a point where they can be flushed out by carrying out a normal bleed procedure.
Something similar to what you posted that helps with bleeding;
After bleeding the brakes, to get the remaining lil bubbles out and firming up the lever;
Put the bike on the side stand, forks set to the
left, getting the master cylinder at the highest point, and bungee the front brake lever applied overnight. It allows those tiny bubbles to migrate out and does indeed work and give you a firmer lever. I've done it on my old FJR and FZ several times with definite positive results. The FZ even more so as I have dual, straight thru (no connections, "u" hook ups, etc) SS lines.
*What I referred to earlier is strapping the front brake lever applied, THEN, remove the caliper and do your maintainance (rebuild, etc).
Then re-assemble. What I was told
(and I don't know if it works) is that by doing this, it keeps the master cylinder from draining out bone dry and thus your NOT starting out with a completely dry system to bleed.