exercise

[Texican]

My shoulder joint tends to hurt when doing them regularly.

Are your arms out, away from your body?  If you can bring your hands in closer, and lean forward a little, making it more of a triceps and pectoral exercise, instead of mostly a lat and pec exercise, you should be able to avoid that shoulder pain.

I have tears in both my right and left rotator cuffs, and if I do dips on regular dip bars, it feels like someone is stabbing my shoulders.  I've made a set of dip bars that fit on top of the safety bars inside my squat cage, and I don't feel any pain when I use those, since my hands are closer to my sides.

As an exercise, they work, but unlike pullups, I would not consider them to be an essential movement. It is not a movement which is that useful in real life. A pushup (which a dip is) going more forward (classic pushup), on an incline (elevated feet) or a handstand will work the same muscles in a safer and more productive way I think.

I can only think of one motion where it could prove helpful- in climbing, like when going up, over a ledge.

[Historian]

I can only think of one motion where it could prove helpful- in climbing, like when going up, over a ledge.

Yes, it is a natural movement, but rarely used especially over other exercises (a pull up movement is used much more in climbing)

Also, there are types of pullups which have this movement. They requirement more speed, as as they go all the way up.