Wingsfolded, again with all due respect, the problem is that you are commenting on professional pilots' issues with no knowledge of such.
You say the examples I gave were technical - well that's your definition - but in fact they aren't classed as such in the profession. If I was conducting a line check on a crew most if not all I mentioned would be marked as notech items, ie, non-technical.
I mentioned what words we use to ask for the gear to be retracted. You reckon this is a technical item. Think again. How the gear operates is the technical bit - eg, what pressure is needed in the hydraulic lines to operate the gear? That's the technical bit. How we ask for it is the human factors bit where SOP's come in.
You ask was flight safety compromised by the Captain's actions? The simple answer is yes, in the context that all our actions when commanding an aircraft our determined by the consensus of opinion on what is deemed as safe. This is how the rules, regs and SOPs governing the flight evolve.
If I make up my own rules, would I be endangering the flight? Well, of course. I might get away with it, but that doesn't mean it's safe. The whole point of professional airline ops is to limit the risk. To do this we stick by the consensus of opinion that has produced the rules at any given time. In extremis, we can of course break the rules if that enhances safety.
As an aside, any time a non-pilot is on the jumpseat probably reduces the safety of the flight a little anyway, as at best he/she can be a distraction and at worst if something goes wrong, we have no knowledge of how they'll react.
Take a rapid decompression as an example. Instead of two professionals getting their masks on, establishing comms and getting on with dealing with the emergency, there is now someone who may be unable to get their own mask on, who may need help, who may be flailing around in a panic etc. A big distraction to the task at hand.
The bottom line is, us pilots are employees like anyone else. We know what the rules are. If you disregard them in such a cavalier way, you know you're heading for the chop. It's that simple.