And, after that "bombing mission" briefing the next thing asked is, "Flight plan fuel?" What a farce!
So presumably, the way around that particular farce would be for the captain to decide on the fuel and then to say, "Oh, by the way, my sector".
I think it's eminently sensible to discuss the flight in reasonable detail and include all the crew in the decision making process - after all, none of us are as infallible as we might like to think we are.
STP
PS. What's any of this got to do with hiring First Officers?