My point was that the OP's colleague wanted to do things the hard way, just in case things changed. Why limit it to just that situation? Apply it to the climb as well.
If you get a heading while on the STAR, it's going to keep on doing what it was just doing (reversion to VS), and you'll always get an altitude with that heading. It's not that hard.
I've flown with the type of person the OP describes. It's unnecessary workload, and distracts from other tasks. You've already verified all the fixes and associated constraints. Why complicate a simple matter? It's not against SOP though, so I keep my mouth shut.