philipat;
Given that confiuration related accidents are far from infrequent, would it be desirable and/or feasible to formalise this final check?
We can't really say that configuration accidents are "far from infrequent" as it just isn't the case, not in my experience anyway. That configuration errors have caused accidents is true, but not "frequently". For discussion's sake however I understand what you're saying and my own view on formalizing a "final check" is what the Before Takeoff Check is all about already. Let me provide what is perhaps a poor example but may illustrate the thinking involved -if you're leaving your house for a vacation, you do a formal run-through to ensure locked doors/windows, that the stove is turned off and all unnecessary lights are off...that could be called, (for lack of a better term for what is pretty informal for us all!), the "formalized" list. But....as we pull out of the driveway, we may quietly reassure ourselves that the stove is indeed turned off...
There isn't anyway to re-formalize this process so that it is more effective. Checking, re-checking is what all airmen do; it is habit borne out of hundreds, or thousands of hours of experience and moments of, to be blunt, stark terror at "what just about occurred"...No airman is without such experiences, (you've read a few here already), almost all of them quietly endured and without fanfare or "result". That's why, when discussing what pilots "are worth" to airline managements and other standard doubters who think of us as "expensive resources", I use the phrase, "We're paid thousands and thousands of dollars per minute but you'll never know which one. The rest is for free".