Tescoapp: glad to hear there are still some old farts alive & well and practicing the dark arts. I'm glad I read your whole massive, because the opening gambit led me to believe you might be in total disagreement when in fact you seemed to be in severe agreement. Bravo.
Why your boss thinks a circle to land is an easier manoeuvre alludes me. I suspect one of two of my last CP's would have gone apoplectic because of 'the message' it would send to others. I did have that comment once, and decided with a heavy heart not to pursue what 'the message' was.
I was flying with an F/O who was PF into a severe clear area, as in the runway was visual from 50nm or more. The straight in ILS was u/s, the wind favoured the other end, and the ATIS said 'circle to land' from the VOR. It would say that because there is no IFR approach to the other end. We were the only traffic and there are no PAPI's on 'the other end'. The F/O briefed the circle approach with all the fine detail required and the use of autopilot, including the circling height of 600' with gear down etc. That was were I gave him 'the eye', and wondered why a perfectly good visual downwind was not a better choice. Answers; "ATIS says circling, I'm on the outside of the turn, there are no PAPI's, circling profile will put me in the correct place in glide slope." I commented that circling would put him, blindly onto a 2nm final with no PAPI and little time to correct. A visual circuit, time it if you feel you must, will give you a longer final to sort it out and stabilise. The following discussion was an education for both us; well a disappointment for me, and this within an airline who claims to have the highest training standards. There are times when 'the emperor has no clothes'.
I still lay some responsibility at the XAA's door with their low expectations for base training, and the airlines themselves. There are airlines that do not allow pilots to execute a typical base training circuit on the line. What is the point; I'm lost.