The only hour that is really important is the one that’s in front of you.
As far as esoterics and getting down in the weeds, we log time (I think everyone does) while watching and managing an autopilot which is doing its thing. While there is skill and training involved, it’s still the thing doing most of the flying. So any other point is moot — it’s just a matter of following whatever rules there are toward what time you are allowed to log. Watching air go by isn’t the same as actually flying the jet but making such a distinction in practice is hard to do and — like seniority — there isn’t much of a way to figure out how to do it better. Pay scales really have nothing to do with any of it and are their own animal altogether. So that’s that.