Fuckery w/ Cogs vs Payroll Tax Benefits, Advertising Expenses??

I recently started working for a small manufacturer and am scratching my head on a few things the main accountant insists on leaving set up.

First, I questioned why we didn't have labor to assemble the items tied to Cogs and he just blew me off and said it didn't matter in the end. How does it not matter? Am I crazy to think that from a tax perspective it makes more sense to include it in Cogs?

We send out sample boxes of our top 5 items and a catalog as part of advertising to potential customers (B2B). He has me just doing inventory adjustments for the items we send out as a general inventory adjustment. I asked why we weren't applying it to Marketing and Advertising expense and he says "I understand where your coming from, but let's just leave it as is.". Am I nuts to think that messes with Cogs? Same with Donations, he has it tied to a Cogs account. I feel like I'm missing something.

I'm starting to think one of us doesn't understand accounting related to manufacturing. (fully admit I don't have the 4 yr degree... But some of this just seems.... Lazy???). He has a CPA and owns his own accounting firm. So I feel bats it questioning this. But I still feel wrong about it without being explained the logic/benefit.

Am I off base?