Interesting topic and the answer inevitably is not straightforward.On one hand you have to have a set of sops to cover normal and abnormal ops;the experienced pilot will say where is the room for common sense and airmanship and this has validity and relevance.However...you cannot have it all ways;in the 'brave new world' that we live in the entry level of experience has been reduced to 170 hours flight time with the prospect of (God forbid!) further reduction for the new ill- conceived MPL (my opinion) and attendant further reduction of flying experience for the future occupants of the rhs of the 737/A320 types that these tyros are supposed to fill.No disrespect intended to the future generation of pilots who are often exceedingly competent and motivated but they will be there as a result of economics,politics and regulatory incompetence(off the fence now!) and the one qualification they will not have is experience.With experience you can make the sensible 'judgement call' to modify an sop;without it you can't.The Ryanair/easy etc style ops need rigid adherance to sops,imho this is the only way the new generation of inexperienced pilots can be safely accomodated. I am worldly enough to know that north American and Antipodean ops are completely different with vastly enhanced experience levels required to fly their entry level airline jets and probably a different philosophy regarding rigid adherance to sops.Essentially you can only use common sense and airmanship if you have the experience to fall back on in the first place.