Well sir, if I may do a "touché, 9 years ago I had an equally gruelling and very aggressive ramp check in EWR by the FAA (and they weren't too polite, to be truthful.) Like the AA skipper, I had no problem being inspected, but some guys do have a 'stick up their ass' (beautifully put, by the way!) I'm not doing a 'Brit versus Yank' here (boring and childish) just saying that you can get unlucky anywhere.
The worst one I ever heard of was in Marseille, where my colleague thought he was about to be carted off to jail at one point - his alternate had changed from the original because it had fogged out, and the inspector wanted to see all the new alternate fuel planning. When the F/O actually produced it in precise detail, he nominated him for canonisation.