Sideshow Bob,
I'm with you mate. R21 - assuming SSB isn't making it all up (and I see no reason to assume he is) then he doesn't sound much like dead wood to me.
Oddly enough the standards unit (or whatever they're called these days) are pretty good at evaluating the professional capabilities of those they spend the week beasting... but secondary duties, and prowess at sports, have always (until I left at least) been the route to promotion - FS ought to be based on getting a B cat, MACr resulting from displaying good leadership, which on the kipper fleet would mean you were a B cat FS lead and you ran a good team. (Other fleets etc will surely be able to suggest a sensible way to assess leadership that involves the actual work done rather than being Akela of the local Cub scout pack).
It's even more annoying when you see people on ground tours, who have perhaps successfully evaded a sqn for surprisingly long periods of time, getting promoted and/or commissioned....so here's another radical idea, no promotion if you aren't on a sqn....
Commissiomned NCO's - the good ones - should be considered as either 'people who needed longer to mature, but managed it' or 'people who were incorrectly assessed first time round'. Both should be very capable, and I don't honestly see why they shouldn't rise as far as anyone else - perhaps a surprise to some who aren't familiar with NCO aircrew but the ones I flew with weren't that bad at tactics, current affairs, geopolitics, common sense (often by the bucket load) etc - what else do you want in a senior officer on a battlefield? I've known a lot of officer and NCO aircrew, I didn't find them all that different - you had a similar mix of intelligence, common sense, knowledge, integrity, backbone.... both groups have their kippers (2 faced and spineless), both have people who could run the RAF frankly, given the experience.