Are commercial pilots still against Class E?

[mullokintyre]

I have written a post on this subject a few times, but then decided against submitting.
But i think it is time.
Not being an IFR pilot, I don't know what half the people are talking about on this subject. ( I suspect the other half don't either, but thats another issue!).
I was at Wahring on the morning of the accident, horrible weather, so no flying for me. I spent my time trying to adjust an attachment mechanism to a powered tractor to pull the plane out of the hangar.
The following day, I was discussing the incident with an IFR rated instructor/chopper pilot.
He noted that when an IFR aircraft entered a non towered aerodrome, they switched to the local freq to communicate their intentions.
Most IFR aircraft are fitted with a second radio to enable them to monitor ATC while communicating on local freq.
He said, it was "common practice" to turn the ATC radio down so that the pilot could hear the response from any other local traffic in the area.
Myv aircraft has two radios, and although only ever VFR, I usually have ATC monitored on the second radio, especially if I use flight following.
I myself turn the secondary radio off when communicating to local Frequency, getting ATS etc, so I can see where this would be practical.
Now what I next have to say is heresay via a third party, and I have no way of verifying it.
He said that there was at least one and possibly two other aircraft on the same ATC freq following the Travellair towards YSHT.
One of them heard a frantic ATC controller trying to contact both aircraft on ATC freq warning them of a serious conflict, but got no response.
His calls became increasingly frantic until there was silence and a new operator came on.
My immediate thought was why didn't the other following aircraft switch to the mang local and try to warn the aircraft, but perhaps they did not have time, or did switch to the local freq but the mid air had already occurred.
Could the turn down the second radio "standard procedure" be one of the root causes here?

Mick