Another reason to follow SOP's is that it mitigates against pilots with poor decision making skills.
Over half of accidents would not have happened if better decisions had been made. Pilots who lack decision making skills and end up doing things like this
In my early days I was treated to 365knots down the glide
Or
In my third life we did a 1000ft cloud brake followed by a LEft hand circling approach in severe turbulence...stopwatch abeam threshold followed by gear, 20 secs later rolling in to a constant angle descent, changing config and speed to roll out twix 400 and 500ft with an on limits crosswind...flown from the wrong side.
Sill managed a greaser on a short runway within 3-600m - company limit.
are protected from themselves. So are their passengers because the pilot doesn't get the opportunity to massage their ego at the expense of the daughters, wives, babies etc who have paid to sit behind on the assumption that wise decisions will be made.
When decisions like the above are made there is an assumption that everyone else will do their job correctly,the machinery will behave as advertised, and Mother Nature won't bite. The margins are reduced to the point that a mistake by a controller or another pilot ( as in the IB situation) is all that is required for an accident or incident to occur.
Being a skilful pilot is not all about stick and rudder, a large portion of the skill set is decision making.
Glad you got through Blind Pew.