To the poster who rudely scoffed at his remarks, and coming from a person with "a few thousand hours under his belt", I think bfisk shows a sensible attitude for his experience. I consider that SOPs must be followed, but inidividual technique may be applied and indeed encouraged where pertinent so long as it doesn't compromise SOP or safety.
As has been quoted from JAR-OPS above, it is OK to deviate from an airline or manufacturer's SOP where following such would be unsafe. It is not however, an excuse to do what we please when we please.
There will always be differences in operating in the flight deck. To eliminate all differences our operating manuals would be undigestably thick. I will only question an FO's technique if it is compromising the safety or commercial operating efficiency of the aircraft. Sometimes letting people get on with it builds their confidence allowing more open acceptance of constructive criticism in the future.
Strangely enough the old FD problem was often reversed for me where new FOs tried to fly with it off as often as possible in a vain attempt to replicate their light aircraft skills. This inevitably hindered their progress. A balance must be struck somewhere.