You are quite right in your anti-tool argument; just don't put them on until you are over the Med!
I totally agree. I did exactly this in 1985, while copilot in a Twin Otter, we were ferrying from Rotterdam to Lesotho. I asked my captain why he had awarded me four stripes, to his four, when I was evidently the copilot. He said it would just work better, and it did! I was actually intimidted by the respect I suddenly commanded south of the Med!
Perhaps it is a different world there now, I have not been back, and, we were flying a Twin Otter, which is presentably large, but those are my thoughts...
Oh, and for heaven's sake, when you cross back out of Africa, please put the stripes far out of sight, to prevent the ridicule of your peers....