The less bang the better regardless of how it is achieved.
People that pull the clutch all the way in, then apply pressure to the shifter almost never manage to match engine speeds on the super light flywheeled fairly sensitive throttled F800GS and many don't even try. This results in bangs that are far more transmission hoseing then people with well developed clutch less skills.
Going from say 4th to 3rd smoothly without the clutch takes throttle manipulating skills I have never seen anyone in possession of. But 3rd to 4th is easy.
I have zero fear of wearing out shift forks on the F800, so am a big fan of preloading. My forks still had machining marks after 11,000 miles of preloading every shift and generally riding like an ass.
My dogs were all perfectly square and showed almost no wear and yet I barely use the clutch. The dogs that did show a little wear were worn, I believe because I use neutral frequently to rest my gimpy wrist. There is no way to get out of neutral without a rock crushing bang. (well, yeah, you could turn the engine off but come on)
I use a combination of always applying significant preload, pulling in the clutch rapidly, but depending on weather I'm going up or down, snapping the throttle closed and back open when going from 1 to 2 to 3....
When going 6 to 5 to 4..... I apply some throttle for a split second as the clutch comes all the way in rapidly and the shifter is firmly actuated, or sometimes I just pull the clutch all the way in and leave it in to a stop. When I do the latter, I shift as the gear synchronizes with the engine at idle, so, like, Im going from 6th to 5th at around 25 MPH.
People who block shift down with the clutch in at speed destroy transmissions.
In any case, my shifts go well when its all very smooth with no bangs.
The bike jerking some is not particularly hard on the transmission, though the chain is not a fan of such. No matter how far in the clutch is, big bangs from the transmission are always bad. The bang when going from neutral to first is the perfect example of how your shifts should not feel.
Make any sense?
Let the insults commence lol
P.S. I saw two F8 transmissions explode at another shop. Both bikes were ridden by very methodical riders, both German ironically.
The shop guys described customers shifting manners as very distinct and that they basically went "time to shift. close throttle completely, pull in clutch completely, wait for engine speed to drop greatly, actuate shifter firmly, let clutch out firmly and complain to service guys that the rear hops every time I shift, apply throttle, yeah, I'm a motorcyclist" lol
Then again, one of the guys complained his motorcycle was defective cause when he would bank shift down to first while still going 60 on an off ramp it would make an odd whine, so no big mystery on that one.