Was given an old Honda mower that had sat for a very long time with gas in the carb, and found the float-bowl full of jelly! Fortunately, I was able to clean it out and there was no serious damage. But I routinely run the carbs dry on my small engines that are equipped with a fuel-valve, and have added fuel-valves to some of mine that didn't have one. All of my small engines are gravity-fed, so extended cranking and delayed starting due to dry carbs isn't usually a problem.
There's also a safety consideration with an unattended small-engine, as a faulty carb can't spill a tankfull of fuel if the fuel-valve is turned off.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW