SOP's are the fruit of decades of trial and error. They can't be perfect but sticking closely to them most of the time makes flying safer and much easier for all
Not necessarily as cronyism is the way into flight Ops management, and positions like these attract the wrong people for the wrong reasons. Most flightops management I have seen has been full of inept buddys that where full of themselves. No good sop is born in enviroments like that. They do serve as a comic relief on the line though. The downfall of the professional pilot will be the death of common sense. Having manuals telling you the volume button should be at 1 o clock is ridicolus.