Completely agree with you, Rat. But like I said, where do you draw the line? Do you lower the flaps every transit and check for bird strikes? Do you check the landing and taxi lights before each night sector? What about the anti-ice?
How many of these "extra checks" will potentially reduce the chance of death or injury, or aircraft damage?
Boeing and the operator decide which checks are important enough to be conducted each flight and which are not. Maybe they're not always right, and they do tend to change from time to time - for example I recall the crew oxygen check going from every transit - to just each crew change - and back to every transit again a couple of years later. Don't know if that was Boeing or just my operator but the point is there are people looking at these things from time to time and making risk assessments versus the time required to conduct these checks and turn the aircraft around in a commercially viable time frame.
I guess the ugly truth is also that they would actually prefer less-important things to be
not discovered until a maintenance check is conducted so they actually have time to fix it which would otherwise impact on a short transit. My goodness, did I just suggest that?
If I was a CP (which I never have been and never will be), I doubt I would be chastising crew for extra vigilance - within reason...
Edit: I am fortunate enough to work for a very good operator with good maintenance ethic. If I didn't I might have a slightly different attitude.