@noflynomore:
Yeah, I know where you're coming from, but dare I hazard that you are of a previous flying generation?, (your forum name would suggest so).
If I am right, you have my total respecr, (and jealousy !); You were one of the lucky ones who flew in the golden years of aviation, but also an era in which the pilots themselves decided how to fly and what to do to remain safe. i.e., before the days of prescriptive SOPs.
Nowadays, we get cadets who flew a Diamond DA62, and then come straight onto an Airbus/Boeing, instead of flying several ancient turboprops on the night mail run for a couple of years, followed by a basic jet before getting onto the big shiny aluminium.
(A wonderful old-school Captain, (Hi Neil), once told me that you knew when you had made it in aviation when your aircraft had the following features:
The nosewheel is behind the cockpit,
There are more toilets than engines,
You don't have to bend down to walk under the fuselage)
.......but I digress.
Anyway, today's aviation has a minimum of training time, and so SOPs have become an important way of bolstering up that lack of journeyman experience. There simply isn't the time available for cadets to learn through long years of observation, so SOPs have become the way to pass on the collected wisdom?
I don't say this is right or wrong, but simply offer it as a thought.