If the godrays are this bad, you've yet to put it on properly. Since I know for a fact that you can play without godrays if you put it on properly.
Yeah you can see the SDE on both headsets, seriously not much you can do unless you're able to get something along the lines of StarVR.
Or it could be his eyes are more sunken in than most or his display was calibrated brighter casing more godrays or even dirty from eye lashes etc. Plenty of reasons why, but I agree wearing it properly should be relatively comfortable and unnoticable godrays in most games. Elite Dangerous is kind of one of the worse games with it's contrast because of the holographic panels.
Also when you are fully immersed the FOV and SDE goes away for me, I really don't notice it. It's like my eyes get sucked through the lens and display into the virtual world. Doesn't happen that often, but I know during horror games the nose gap seems to always disappear and suddenly I feel trapped.