I couldn't agree more. e.g. On my SEA-RDU flight last month we had a deadheading pilot in F. If I understood correctly he was going to be taking the plane to Greensboro for maintenance work. Anyway the FAs just couldn't get enough of chatting with this pilot. Maybe a checklist that they had to mark off as they completed tasks would have reminded them about items like the snack basket, offering beverage refills every so often, etc.