Meh. Shaving down the dots sounds like too much work. I bought them to make life easier.
As far as filling from the keg, I get some spillage when I'm filling bottles, but not too bad. It helps to have the bottles cold and wet. For growlers, I'll spray some star san in them, swish it around, dump it, and fill. As long as the keg pressure is low, you should be fine. But, yeah, it's almost always done at the last minute.