The diversity of views between 2 people, 1 of whom was recently a Training Captain on the 225 and another who I don't know but flies the 225 highlights the problem of standardising training and procedures.
It is from Training Captains that many pilots get their training and that OM Part Bs are written. Do these 2 companies train pilots so differently as shown in the views of HC and DB? OEMs don't know much about real operations (it's changing slowly) but when they do, hopefully the training part of the offshore helicopter industry will adopt more of an FCOM type approach.
Part of the problem is also that helicopter pilots come from such non standard backgrounds performing a variety of tasks in very basic aircraft so providing a standard pilot "product" at the end is complex.
HC, I have mostly flown the trim release like you and I generally agree with your comments on DB's various modes.