I've cured and smoked thousands and thousands of bellies. We (my dad's store) always cured and smoked them rind on. We would remove the rind on about half of each batch (300 lb batches) after smoking, fresh out of the smokehouse while still warm; it was so much easier and quicker. We'd cool down the rest, and if needed, we would remove rinds as necessary by the slab. The only problem, if someone wants rind-on bacon, you can't glue it back on! We'd run the knife under the first 2" of skin, the grip it with a pair of vise grips, holding it up and keeping it taut while you skinned it off, leaving little to no fat on the skin. We'd just throw them out, but they made great treats for the neighborhood dogs; cutting them into strips. Some bellies you could actually pull the rind off all at once, esp. the overcooked ones right next to the smokehouse walls!
Rind-on bacon is the 'old-fashioned' way to eat bacon; you have that strip of rind that you can chew on, getting all the flavor possible from it, it really is delicious! And, an hour later you can go back and chew on it some more and get more flavor out of it! You do need a commercial slicer to cut it clean by the slice, however. Just like skin-on side pork - it wouldn't be sidepork if you didn't have the rind to chew on!