If letting the captain fly their own ship is trolling, then yes: I am promoting deliberate and widespread trolling. Maybe I'll repost it somewhere more appropriate, but I'm pretty sure the devs will get a kick out of my proposal.
For obvious reasons the captain spot is for the pilot. The person who flies the ship gets to be the captain. A captain who is not planning on flying the ship is trolling whether or not they realize it.
There is never a situation where the person flying the ship shouldn't be the captain.
NOBODY wants a level 1 gunner captain of a spire on their team, so we should try to prevent this from happening. If reasoning with the player doesn't work, what is the alternative? My method does work, and in the grand scheme of things, it's pretty harmless.
It's important to recognize that these captains don't care what their crew are. I see plenty of gunner captains with extra gunners on board. It's NOT FAIR to the ally. If the captain requests that I change to engineer because he wants to fly, I would respect his decision.
If being an unnecessary pilot on board a ship is trolling, then there is already widespread trolling. Ships start with multiple pilots all the time and the crew/captains don't appear to care. Plus, I'm a pretty good crew member regardless of my class.
Again, there is NEVER a situation where the person flying shouldn't be the captain. Because the captain flies the ship, I propose that you let them fly it. The captain learns a lesson and there's no harm done.