"It does worry me that basic airmanship needs to be written in an SOP."
We work in an industry where a two pilot crew recently flew an entire sector with the wheels down and did not notice. They couldnt figure out why it would not climb, why it would not accelerate, why it was so noisy and yet pressed on regardless. And then almost ran out of fuel.
There is almost ZERO basic airmanship in many parts of the world and these SOP's pander to the lowest common denominator.