de facto,
Yes, I have no problem step climbing to next level, when the FMC shows it as max. And consequently I have no problem selecting CON as thrust limit as
pr. Boeing recommendation - routinely.
Now on the other hand, please tell me where Boeing recommends 1000 feet extra margin on the max altitude (which already has plenty of margin built in).
At some point one has to stop adding personal margins on margins already built into the systems.