Engines - I have to disagree with you about the Hermes at lower deck level at least.
She was known as the Happy H for a very good reason and any social media site on her will bear this out.
Yes, there were some unsavoury characters on her down South, before and after, but all ships have them.
'Screaming Leeming' was one, but people still spin dits about him.
As for 1F they integrated well at squadron level in my books with the obligatory inter service banter not withstanding.
Their pilots across the board were more than willing to explain their sorties and exploits to the maintainers and the same can be said for the 800/899 pilots.
Some of the 800 (899) maintainers were seconded to support 1F, all these guys had been on 700A IFTU and had been at Wittering with the RAF and GR3s prior.
With reference to Lin Middleton his IWM audio memoirs give an insight to his views on 1F and their role.
Also you can pick up the friction between him and the Flag staff and how he wanted to do things from an aviator's perspective and what they wanted with regard to air ops (reels 7&8).
For anyone interested in the conflict the IMW audio tapes provide invaluable information, views and opinions from many of the key players and the various problems they faced at times.
Jeremy Moore's is a treasure trove worth listening to.