BEagle With all due respect, you are simply quoting the regs. I know what you 'should log', this thread is discussing whether they make sense. IMO, directing the content of a flight does not automatically make you Commander. Lots of people not touching the controls get to direct the content of a flight. Some of them are not even pilots, some are pilots and not instructors.
The person ultimately responsible for the safe completion of the flight is Commander. Somebody telling the pilot to 'turn left' is not necessarily that person.
The regs make allowance (concessions may be a better word) for others to log PIC. Does it matter, who cares? Everybody, that's why you log dual received, dual given, and PIC (as defined by The Authority) in different columns.
The totals at the base of the three columns, and some quick mental arithmetic, gives a better idea of what somebody has really done
As I said, it's all a game. An instructor never gives 'instruction' for the whole flight, and it's not always that the student is 'sole manipulator of the controls' for the whole flight. People just log the whole flight as if it was a single 'experience'. Maybe you are correct, who does care? When I get snotty remarks from UK instructors because I logged PIC in my FAA logbook after being checked out in the UK, I certainly don't care
