One advantage that I've found with doing imagined reality checks over real reality checks is that with imagined reality checks I picture the reality check giving me a signal that I am dreaming and myself becoming lucid in my dream as a result of this, whereas with a regular reality check, the reality check works normally, and I find that I am not dreaming.

So I think that by using imagined reality checks a person can help to program their subconsious mind better to expect to become lucid than they can with regular reality checks.