one of the most amazing accomplishments of airline flying is two pilots who have never met before can do so at 5am with complex issues such weather and maintenance and fly a high performance jet across the country. How is trust high level with two strangers?

Trust is “artificial” with the commonality of the FM/FOM/UPA, company ID and uniform.

if one of dudes at 5am was using the wrong FM something would be suspect.

This is why pilots who don’t care about the uniform or have a negative attitude create resentment.