I agree here 100%. If something happened to the captain I would expect the chief to assist how and when he could. I also expect that he’d do the same thing for me on a routine voyage. It’s in both of our interests that things run smoothly.
I’m also going to support the chief as required. If we have technical problems I am not going to have a good trip. For one nothing gets the attention of shoreside like going off-hire, it’s going to be endless emails.
There is sometimes not much space between a command and advice. For example “don’t run that pump” is a command. “If you run that pump it’s going to destroy itself” is advice, but likely the same outcome in each case.