Blatant Liar - firstly, I am not presuming anything with this operator in regards to their use or non-use of checklists, however have you ever flown with people who do not use written checklists both in either private or commercial world? I have, it's not that uncommon.
Checklists via memory only have items often forgotten. Flow procedures will occasionally forget something, but a written checklist will pick them up. However sometimes in a rush people will even miss things on written checklist because they are in a rush, they've done the same thing hundreds of times before and see what they expect/want to see, not what is actually on display in front of them.
I also like your generic checklist. Trims aren't the first pre-takeoff item on mine. Maybe I should adjust my approved check system to something less dumb?
Poor buggers.
I remember seeing the FaRT plane up FNQ back in the day.