OK here is another point of view via a "Real no s____ sea story".
On My boat after the CO qualified a JO as EOOW, the skipper would come back during that EOOWs 1st watch and scram the plant from AMR2 UL (with ENG and ETT in tow).
I was stand RO when this rather pompus (ring knocker) JO took the watch then proceded to tell us he knew what the CO was going to do , and that we were not to try and make him look bad by doing things without his orders/concurance (no suggestion!!! "I am the EOOW and Know what to DO!!).
After the wink wink nudge nudge bretween RO/EO/Th man we were AYE AYE sir yes sir!
So.... Skipper scram plant and wanders into manuvering in time to see me shifting pumps and cutting out alarms (EO tripping TG shifting MGs to Gen, maning phones (and so on). Once we completed our immediate actions we stood (well sat actually) by for orders, actuall the TH man was barking out questions he was getting from the Conn, while the EO was braking out the reports from the space (me and the AMR2 UL watch were on the phone telling jokes (ok not really).
During this time the "EOOW" was fumbling thru the RPM and trying to repeat all the reports (not doing very because the EO (who did a great Bill Murry) just kept droning on

This last for about 60 seconds (those who know realize that 60 sec is like a life time when the skipper is staringat you!!). The only thing getting hotter was the CO (guessin he was putting hot more decay heat than the core, second to him was the ENG. (heres the good part)
SO now knowing what was going on (he was smart and figured out quickly) the CO told the "EOOW", "You are relieved, I have the watch as EOOW , THrottleman roport to Conn that CO has the watch as EOOW" (wish I could of had a picture of the OOD's face then. HE continued on "MR Blak___ you are to report to my stateroom now!" about a second later he says" belay that you just stand there and watch this!"
He then ordered me as RO to take charge of manuvering and conduct a FRS" (he even made the ENG plot the board while the JO watched!)
OK so I, the EO, Th man did just that got plant back to green band, answering the ordered bell with TG's online. All done with no input from CO, ENG, or "EOOW". Once we secured the phones the CO ordered the ENG to assume the watch and told JO that NOW he could report to his stateroom!
The JO left and CO chewed our butts for how 2 mins, his point was that we were never to let the EOOW fail no matter how big a pompus ass he was (skipper knew the JO, like I said he was bright man).
The JO had to stand U/I under every watch station (Ithink it was two watches each) before he could stand EOOW.
Moral of the story: EOOW is optional in most cases, operators know what to do without them, Officer have thier purposes but they do not "operate" nuclear power plants!! (In fact if one tried to touch my control rods I was alway told I could slap thier hand!!

A good EOOW is part of the team not tell it what to do (the best EOOWs are the one that listen for the problems and point them out, usually we solve them once we catch them)
OK that was quite long but thought it offered perspective given this thread.
Rob