Popay; no disagreement here... SE net climb gradient must clear
all obstacles by 35'. When all the fans are running, there are no problems.
AS far as VMC departures go, there are situations where a visual departure will allow a higher MTOM, but these are then associated with distant obstacle (4th segment) climb, where it may be necessary to maintain a 300m / 600m corridor width instead of 900m due to difficult topography. (Take northern norway as an example.) However; these must be published and depicted in accordance with, as you've earlier stated, JAR-OPS 1.495(d)(1) & (e)(1).
Cloud surfer