Depending on the flight planning system one is using some are able to calculate etops scenario without ETP, which I agree it is still completely legal however this raises some questions regarding the logic of the whole philosophy of etops! For example flights wb ovr the NAT area that are using as a single etops EINN once they have a failure right bfore hiting the 60 min border of the first adequate aerodrome on Canadian soil according to your rule the guy has to go full backwards to EINN! Now this doesn’t make sense does it??? It is true that the PIC has the authority to divert anywhere he pleases, but I’m pretty sure that the whole purpose of giving them two good alternates, basically telling him where to divert is all about making his life easier during emergency and is not gonna hurt the feelings of the PIC!
And furthermore when the crew inserts the OFP in the FMC they insert as well the etops ALT and the ETOPS scenarios, and in 99% of the cases when a diversion occurs the crew always diverts to the designated etops alt.