Tcasted,
Your last post and mine seem to have coincided.
From the report it would seem that the key to the Captain's problem was not the Flight Attendant's attitude but the fact that the flight could not depart with only 5 crew in the cabin thereby not allowing him to "send the
ashore"!
My understanding is that the minimum number of cabin staff is dictated by the number of exit doors - i.e. 6 doors = 6 cabin staff, one to man each in an emergency although I have to ask why Easyjet and Ryanair (in the UK) can operate with only 3 cabin staff on a 737?
What would have happened if a member of the cabin crew had gone sick? Would the flight not have departed then?
If this is a problem then perhaps it could be solved if members of station staff were to be trained in emergency evacuation proceedures for various types of aircraft and who could be utilised at short notice.