I too would be interested in aircrew opinion, not only to the questions you pose tuc, but to the larger safety/airworthiness/MAA questions that have been raised in this thread, mainly by engineers past or present I suspect. There seems to be a bit of a one sided discussion going on here, to the effect that airworthiness is to do with aircraft and hence engineers, and currency is to do with policy implemented by aircrew commanders. So none of it is to do with PBI aircrew? Of course not, for as Jig Peter reminds us:
Flight Safety is YOUR business
So let's hear from you! Personally I am not so concerned about the demarcation between these various aspects of safety, for the very goal post moving by the MOD that so bedevilled things in the past will now come under the control of the MAA, or should do! Just as BA cannot chop and change the duties and responsibilities of its engineers or aircrew without the sanction of the CAA, so will it be with the MAA, or should be! So the real bottom line to all this is the MAA, and once again I pose the question:
how much authority has this Authority?