To be fair to the crew there was an SOP ‘clarification’ about five years ago telling pilots that taxi lights should NOT be turned off for oncoming traffic. I choose to ignore that but as always there will be people out there so **** scared of a telling off they apply every edict to the letter.
Well if they have put it in writing that's what they want you are going to have a hard time going against it. You can't really argue that you are the arbiter of SOPs. If people want an argument give them the managers phone number and make them responsible for the company's stupidity. Same could be said about the Mainline QF lights policy. I have had several safety incidents due the lights policy but nothing changes despite safety reports. There will need to be an taxi accident before that changes. By then the moron who implemented would have taken his money and left. They can argue it is recommended all they like but it creates a safety threat to all other aircraft around them, especially so on a dark rainy night.