Passenger boarding without flight crew - what does your airline do ? ....

[Abusing_the_sky]

maybe we are just very lucky to have very good handling agents

Aaahhhh, but you ARE very lucky

This airline's handling agent is well known for c@ckups. 3 out of 4 flights have wrong figures at the gate. So closing the doors and then do a headcount is such a daft idea.
However, the Memo doesn't say you can't do a headcount with the doors open...