Sorry if I misunderstood the situation re your captain, PN. Whatever it was, if he was contemplating disobeying an anticipated order then my reaction remains as was, ie don't!
By the same token I am not suggesting that Pound's order should have been disobeyed. Why should it have been? Those receiving it assumed that Tirpitz was out and close by. The trouble was that it wasn't. The only people who knew enough about it to know different were at the Admiralty. If the only person senior to Pound was Churchill, then he should have been told of their concerns about Pound. Instead the RN closed ranks and PQ17 was fed to the wolves.
Nor am I suggesting that Pound deserved punishment of any kind. On the contrary he had served his country well to this point, but he should have been retired on health grounds. As to his CV, what is the point that you are making? None of it suggests that he was FSL because of his birth, rather it was because of his ability. What is wrong with that? Are you suggesting that a wavy navy hostilities only FSL would have been better? PQ17's scatter was not because of Pound's birth but rather because of his health. We keep coming back to that and why it meant that others should have stepped in.
I can't see why that is so difficult to accept. Goodness knows there were examples of some who were never up to their job, and if you throw in accident of birth as well you end up with SAC SEAC, but he was hardly typical. British Commanders served us well on the whole, subject of course to the usual revisionists.