Applying and interviewing for a faculty position without intent of accepting position
Please don't do this- you'll only be wasting the time of the search committee members. Furthermore, you'll be doing something that is dishonest, and you do should not get into the habit of lying to people.
If it becomes apparent early in the search process that you aren't truly interested in the position then the committee will probably not invite you for an on-campus interview. If you actually are invited for an on-campus interview, then there's a good chance that it will become apparent during the interview that you really aren't interested in the position. If you feign interest and do get an on-campus interview and then get an offer but reject that offer, then you'll have left a bad impression with the faculty in that department which will effect your relations with them in the future.
The ways in which this can hurt the candidate are fairly limited, so the reality is that people can get away with this if they want to. However, that doesn't make it right.
It seems a little inconsiderate to me; the department will waste their time considering your application, and the further along in the interview process you get, the more of their time (and yours) you will waste. But I don't think it's necessarily unacceptable. You could argue that an interview might convince you that you would be interested in working there after all.
I'm not sure it's actually very helpful to you, though.
Your point 1 doesn't make sense to me. If you want to tell someone about your work, just send them an email and tell them. Sending an application seems ineffective; yours will probably be one of hundreds of applications read on that day, which won't help your chances of having them remember you.
For point 2, "practice application" seems a little silly to me. But if you really think it would help, you'll get just as much practice by writing the application and then not submitting it.
Point 3 has some justification. But for it to be effective, you have to go all the way through the interview process and get an offer. Consider the amount of time you'll spend writing a compelling application and traveling to an on-campus interview. And you'll have to spend that day-long on-campus interview insincerely convincing them how much you want to work there; not a very pleasant task for most people. (If you don't do that, you almost certainly won't get an offer and it will truly be a waste of your time as well as theirs.) Even if you do get an offer, it may still be lower than the offer you actually want, and thus useless as leverage. Is it worth it?
I'm going to give a contrarian position and say yes, for two reasons:
- There's something to be said for practicing for interviews you do care about. The job search visit is something of a unique and intimidating beast, and being able to approach it once or two without the pressure of feeling heartbroken if you don't get the position is a good thing.
- You have the capacity to be surprised.
Now if you're genuinely certain you're not going to take the position, then I don't think you should bother. But if it just seems merely unlikely? I can tell you the position that I'm at right now was one where, both at the application and interview phase, I considered unlikely to be the right fit. I was wrong, and ended up taking the position and being quite happy.
What you do need to do is approach is with seriousness. It's still a job interview, and these people are spending their time and money to invite you out. Even if it's unlikely that it'll end up being the right fit, that deserves your respect. Similarly, if it's clear it's not going to work out, turn them down quickly so they can move on.