jcjeant: I believe if you refer to the original French version, you will get a bit different nuance to these interactions.
While the English document says, "the Captain attended the briefing between the two co-pilots" the original French is "le commandant de bord assiste au briefing entre les deux copilotes." The verb "assiste" in French translates better into "participates." Thus, a better interpretation is not just that the Captain was present, but that he interacted as well. So although he may not have been the leader of the briefing, he was more than just a listener.
For the second phrase, the English document says, 'the PNF said "you can maybe go a little to the left […]".' But the original French says, 'le PNF propose "tu peux eventuellement prendre un peu a guache [...]".' I would translate this as 'the PNF suggests "you could go a little to the left"' which is a little more directive than "maybe."
While these alternative translations don't reverse the interpretation of what was going on, I think they suggest there was a bit less diffidence in the cockpit than is suggested by the English document.