Daniel Martin

For which aspect? Presumably, you mean the first point, obtaining ssh access to my home machine by running it over a port that was allowed out, even though in general outbound ssh access was restricted. Presumably the general principle is that circumventing the access policies implicit in firewall rulesets is bad. (*)

Allow me to quote from a Microsoft white paper preserved on the wayback machine:

While they're essential to secure use of the Internet, firewalls make the efficient use of distributed object protocols very challenging. To address this problem, Microsoft has created the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). SOAP is a distributed object protocol that, like DCOM and other protocols in this category, allows RPCs between clients and servers. Unlike existing protocols, however, SOAP is explicitly intended to be usable with firewalls in place. Equally important, SOAP is not designed to be used with only one component technology. Up to now, a great deal of effort has been spent debating which distributed object protocol, and thus which component technology, should be used. However, unlike the distributed object protocols in use today, each of which is tied to a specific technology, SOAP does not assume a particular approach to creating components—this single protocol can be used with any of them.

Not to flog a dead horse, but let me also quote the summary at the top of the paper:

Summary: The Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) is a way to use the existing Internet infrastructure to enable applications to communicate directly with each other without being unintentionally blocked by firewalls.

(*) I've tried to find explicit written network access policies - as far as I can tell, those don't exist beyond the general "business use only, though incidental personal use is allowed" statements in the employee handbook that also cover use of the office telephones.