I come from a family situation not unlike what you described, but where the teasing was a symptom of something else. We were never allowed to be serious, where the constant banter was a way to distance ourselves from issues. After my parents died I have talked to my siblings about this, and while they are now in good, loving relationships, they admit to having had a really hard time forming a relationship. In my own case I have had a really hard time talking about my emotions and I have been independent to a fault. I have since realised I was more or less suppressing my emotions throughout my childhood and we'll into my twenties.
I had a huge problem realising that my way of attaching to other people was causing me to feel bad, but when I finally decided to work hard to see my emotions and try my best to talk about them, all my relationships (romantic and otherwise) became much better. I constantly fall back into teasing mode and not being emotionally present (because hey, it is quite fun) but I have become much better at being emotionally present when I should.
I just wanted to say that it is extremely hard to see any problems with your own attachment model, because it is very natural to you.
This became an unstructured walll of text with too much personal info. I am not sure if I can read any meaning intonit myself
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It seems to fit all the pieces you describe: mechanism which relaxes people and which can form bonding experiences for the whole group participating.
I can't tell if I'm getting trolled because of your username or not, but it seems to fit here.
Hence, it applying to teasing doesn't say anything at all about whether or not teasing is a good thing -- the argument applies to nearly anything at all, both functional and dysfunctional.