Harry,
I agree with you that Duty Period and FDP are two different animals. I am well aware of the basics. You have been here a long time. Has the 30 minutes of post flight duty ever been an issue with regards to your rest? 90% of EK layovers are 24 hours or longer.
The issues arise out of EK pushing the FDP to the max. Many of our turns are scheduled to the legal FDP limit. If you fly mach .85 and depart on time you often are forced into discretion due to the unrealistic taxi, flight, and turn around times provided by the commercial department. The unmentionable airline has made MLE and several of the South Indian destinations a layover due to the fact that they cannot be reasonably operated within the FTL limitations. All this tough talk about not accepting discretion but in 5 years I have never heard of a single EK crew refusing discretion and forcing a layover or DH back to Dubai.