Similarly, a club check instructor might tell you which runway to land on, or tell you to stop by a certain point, or tell you to fly a low level bad weather circuit, or whatever.
Indeed, and as the purpose of the flight is a skills assessment, those expectations should be briefed, prior to the flight. If not, the instructor/check pilot would be interfering with PIC duties. Yes, a go around could be a rather sudden change of plans, but there's no reason not to brief prior to the flight that it will be called - just to keep the PPL mind alert, as it should be anyway.
I always have the option of flying more often and not running out of currency: their train set, their rules, I pays my money and takes my choice.
Very true. But it is not the "club" rules as to how you log flying time, if you are flying in the capacity of PIC, it's the authority's rules, and the club does not serve the renter pilot by muddying them.
I'm quite happy to log such flights as Pu/t: I don't get what all the fuss is about.
If you're happy, we're all happy, but for another pilot, the PuT time might not have the same value in their pilot log as PIC time that they have legitimately flown, and they are the ones paying for it.
Honest question, 'cause I don't know, if an airline Captain is flying a route check left seat with a check pilot to their right, who is PIC?