*revs up his baby-splitter*
Ok, there are a lot of issues here. On the one hand, for example, when I'm on Amtrak I usually tip very well. I try to tip well on VIA's long-haul trains as well...but that's because I know the complexities of rail service and the fact that while the staff are well-paid, the training they go through is somewhat unique and they're week-on/week-off in some cases.
In restaurants it's a mixed bag, but frankly that description of "tipping out" reminded me of the distribution of soup in Ivan Denisovich. That is not a good sign, and while I'm somewhat sympathetic to the issue there's something a bit wrong about "please take into account our arcane, dubious practices of sharing your tip when considering what to give the server". That being said, there are times I've wanted to give a $20 to the cook (there was one bar where I tipped the cook regularly...but that was a truly unusual case where he was an old family friend and my mother had started the practice shortly before she passed on) or to specifically shaft whomever I knew screwed something up (sometimes it's the server, sometimes it's the kitchen or the bar...and honestly, regardless of what the staff tells you sometimes you can figure out who it is who's messing up) without "dinging" the others.
Honestly, I play a lot on a case-by-case basis...usually at a sit-down (in the US) I look at 15-20% excluding tax and most alcohol and do some rounding from there, but that has actually begun to decline over time. In Canada it's 10-15%, same understanding, per my understanding of Canadian tipping practices.
That being said, it varies on the basis of how my service is and there are plenty of cases where I end up skewing low (one tip wound up being very low this week, but that was an artifact of the fact that the restaurant didn't handle a massive party well (in particular, about half of the group had a train to catch and several of them didn't get to have dessert because it took 90 minutes to get the prix fixe appetizers out...they only barely got their entrees)...I covered a friend's tab alongside mine; he had a service charge for the group and I didn't, so I compensated my tip down to get the "overall tip" in line with what I felt was fair). Of course, this came down to the fact that in theory everyone was supposed to have the service charge included (this wasn't happening...computer issues on the restaurant's side), and on that basis there was something like $600-700 in service charge/tip to spread over the roughly five waitstaff. The issue didn't rise to the point of me committing the insult of arguing about the service charge, but did it come close at one point!
Anyhow...suffice it to say that my practices vary, but I might be inclined to consider this concept but use a higher baseline (perhaps $15-20/hr). It actually isn't a bad idea...I've long felt that if the staff is truly swamped with tables (this level varies by restaurant) the tip should skew a bit lower on the grounds that in addition to usually getting lousier service, in theory the staff should also be getting tips from more people to offset it.