I was never briefed on the examiner's preferences. The choice of alternates, the "downwind" power checks, etc were made on previous training flights and was accepted fine. So it's not a case of me doing it "my way" against some advice
My point is take the 170A examiner's advice as an extension of the training, that has picked up a few more points. This is normal, and the ones discussed are mostly very minor. Ignore the fact they were presented as "fail items". If they'd merely been suggestions, we'd probably never be discussing them.
Inevitably, of course, none of these issues will ever come up again! Your next 170A guy will be satisfied with whichever alternate you choose and however you want to do power and rudder checks....