Goldenrivett,
You cite two occurrences where the crew had the weather radar on but used it either "inappropriately or "failed to use the weather radar properly." How would have an "always on" SOP prevented those two occurrences? Those instances sound to me like two crews who didn't know how to operate their weather radar or didn't know their jobs well enough or didn't do good enough preflight preparation or were to busy finishing a crossword puzzle or maybe they needed a trip back to their training center.
Is that cold? Yeah. It has come to the point in commercial aviation where the pilots are either the ones who will save the passengers, crew and aircraft or the ones who will kill the passengers, crew and wreck the aircraft. The earth is littered with dead people and wrecked aircraft because pilots failed their passengers and crew. It is an ugly but inescapable truth.
Look at the past 10 years of accidents - far to many of them point that ugly finger at us as the cause. Pilots who don't know their aircraft, pilots who don't know their SOP, pilots who think they are so damn smart and experienced that SOP doesn't apply to them - pilots who made smoking holes with perfectly fine aircraft and bring along a bunch of guests who preferred not to be invited.
Which brings me back to my original point. If pilots can't be depended upon to turn on and use their WX radar effectively when operating in the vicinity of convective activity, what is their purpose in the cockpit?