He understood my argument, but was obliged to enforce SOP's. OK. Let's change the SOP then. That was like asking the Pope to allow priests to marry.
Very true. This is the corner we paint ourselves into with this nonsense.
Incidentally, in the above example the RT scenario included an aborted start on the #2 followed by a second failed auto start, and a subsequent successful Man Start. The whole process took at least 10 minutes including time spent digging out the Man Start checklist and pre-reading the procedure. All that while the #1 engine is meant to be left running in icing conditions with no Eng Anti Ice.
Because that's the SOP.
Madness.