I bet Leonardo Da Vinci was considered weird in his day. He used to study dead bodies to get an accurate drawing. Skulls, bones, muscles, even nerves. Weird!
I call them important. Every stroke of a good work of art is as important as every other stroke.
You could call those peripheral objects as 'secondary' objects but please never consider them less important.
Depends on what consistency you personally like to work with. Oils are very versatile and can be applied as a wash or as thick impasto. That's why I love 'em.
So take it in and show him. You have to trust somebody and you have to learn to be a judge of character. If you don't know who you can trust you'll just have to take the 7 years of art history training and become the expert yourself.