GA Trojan,
Those are word revealing the attitude of a person who, in my opinion, should not be on the flight deck of an aircraft.
Well if the attitude of some of these guys prevailed in my airline you'd have to cancel about 50% of our flights as they would be to scared to land on a runway that might be remotely close to the landing limit. (which has a safety factor in them anyway)
The thing is in Sydney the braking action is good 99.98% of the time, it doesn't snow or get ice. If it's heavy rain or poor viz then maybe it is a requirement, but most of the time really there shouldn't be an issue if you cross the fence at 50' and land in the TDZ.
MEL I don't find to much of an issue as the penalty of getting moved around is not that severe, SYD is a killer as you add an extra 10+minutes (even more if you're international) in taxi and anything up to 30 miles if you get moved because of someone's 'requirement'.