Don't you just love it when important decisions are made by people without any detailed knowledge of the actual task?
Reminds me of the early S92 days. Two large fuel tanks in the side sponsons each with a gravity fuel cap and a pressure refueling connection on the left sponson, with a cross connection, but no electric pumps - all pressure head. If using pressure refueling a large imbalance (hundreds of pounds) developed which had to be corrected by gravity fueling the right tank to balance it out. We asked to Sikorsky to fit a panel in the cockpit to allow us to activate the high level cut off switches in the left tank, so that the right tank would then continue filling and a balanced total achieved. The conversations went along the lines of:
"Why is the imbalance a problem - you will never go outside the lateral CoG?" - we explained the concept of fuel planning and landing close to reserves/MLA
"Why is topping up the right tank an issue?" - we explained gravity fueling not always available and operationally inefficient
They proposed the switches are to be placed above RHS on his overhead panel....
"Why is that a problem?" - they thought all refueling is done 'cold' and a technician would be operating the switches. When explained that we did 'hot' refuels...
"So, why is it a problem for the RHS to operate the switches?" - we explained that maybe the RHS would be outside the aircraft and the LHS pilot could not reach the switches
"But why would the RHS pilot be outside the aircraft when it's running?"
We got the panel installed in the middle of the centre console...……
Plenty of similar examples on other types.