Opening a book to check something is very different from rearranging yourself so you can keep it open in your lap while you type.
Nothing they were doing was worth $250 an hour.
Yeah. It's one thing if they obviously don't have the slightest clue. But if someone sort of knows how to do something or even thinks they know how, I'm not going to begrudge them checking a manual.
I've long ago learned that people misremember all the time. I trust the person who quickly looks up the correct answer in the manual over the person who thinks they din't need the manual and uses what they think is right. Sure often the second person gets things right, but when they get it wrong they waste a lot of time trying to figure out which thing is wrong.