Old team, old thinking, and a desire to turn this into MRA4.5 will appear.
I doubt that very much - The fitted sensors will impose their own limitations on what can be done, and no amount of wanting an MRA4 would change that. I don't think you'd find RAF Nimrod aircrew insisting on anything, they'd just try to get the best they could out of the kit...and if we're talking refurbished S-3's and the like then this will probably mean winding back on what is achievable.
I don't think RAF aircrew are likely to feature in this anyway. If they did though, I doubt very much that they'd be as silly as you suggest...I don't think you know Nimrod aircrew very well.
Dave