Control Checks
This poor practice and lack of knowledge is unfortunately not uncommon.
Not too long a go I was flying for a European scheduled airline as a line training and checking captain where I routinely saw the FOs do the control checks then if it was windy put the control locks back in. They would rely on memory to remove them before take off but never considered doing another control check.
The fact that I saw many different FOs do this indicates that it was normal practice in the airline which was also backed up by my questioning of the crews. They also saw nothing wrong with it and considered it to be normal practice. Believe it or not a couple even thought I was being awkward by insisting on a control check every time the locks were removed.
This unfortunately happens when small isolated groups of people do not either have or seek outside input to their operation.
MM