This post is to try and entice 'Safety Concerns' over here!
Since the defect was apparently NOT reported, all your comments on MEL simply cloud and confuse the issue on R&N. Few dispute your points and your concerns are echoed in most pilots, although your methods are less than well received.
Some points from a pilot's perspective, SC, on your posts:
1) Do you guarantee that pilots would notice the (transient) occasional defect?
2) If they did, and reported it as such, is there a non-volatile, interrogatable bite on No 1 RA which would contain all faults of the last 25 hours?
3) If not, the chances are extremely high that a 'bite check c/o, NFF, please report further' would ensue (9/10 'results' in my experience). The way engineers have designed tech logs, that 'request' will probably only last as 'visible' for one sector.
I would hope that AEI will responsibly and properly address the apparent difference in MEL actions between operators for this defect as well, by affirmative action rather than internet and press 'leaks'. Presumably you have access to the Boeing master MEL?