The two opposing camps
may actually agree with each other more than they suppose.I believe in airmanship and judgment,borne from experience and cognition.Airmanship will include many things and is often looked down upon by the SOP technocrats.But actually,the good SOP's,the ones that count and make pure sense as an aviator,come from airmanship.They are the lessons of dead men.So the "airmanship" camp do NOT disregard and disrespect the good SOP's because to do so would be poor airmanship.
Any procedure that is "trifling" is a waste.It adds nothing to airmanship whatsoever.It is there out of someone's misguided need for pedantry.
Example: It matters nothing that you wear a headset when receiving a clearance.What matters is that you hear the clearance,read it back correctly to ATC,and cross-check it with the flt plan and your colleague.If you cant hear it because of extraneous noise,then don your headset and ask ATC to repeat.You,as PILOT,decide this all on your own.
Example 2:It matters nothing which pilot enters the data in the FMC prior liftoff.You can quite easily work that out between yourselves as 2 adults..What matters is that ONE PILOT enters the data and the other pilot x-checks prior liftoff.Or if in flight,the PNF enters the data,the PF x-checks and then the PNF executes.It is the concept of one pilot doing and one pilot checking that is sacrosanct,nothing else.
ALL SOPS can and should be broken where appropiate.Knowing when comes from experience and knowledge.This includes things like we've already discussed like not climbing to flight plan-recommended LEVEL even though the FMC and your over-anxious FO says its okay to do so.Or foregoing checklist discipline to affect an immediate landing if the situation is bad.Or exceeding taxi speed if on a long backtrack and asked to expedite for traffic.Or staying above glidepath(if in a medium ac) to avoid wake if you anticipate it or experience it.Or as said before,two pilots both familiar with home base foregoing a briefing even though it is SOP and airmanship to do one.
All that is required is common sense and good judgment.If the SOP's are good,clear and simple then they'll hardly ever be conflicting.