Originally Posted by
Bell_ringer
Thing is, there is a great big world outside of the UK (and US for that matter), where authorities take very different views of instrument flying.
For example, around here, you can only fly IF between licensed and equipped airfields, off field is VFR only.
You may also not legally change from VFR flight to IFR - Their view is it encourages pushing the limits, instead of planning the flight properly from the start.
So, when all you can do is fly airport to airport, a helicopter is not the best tool for that job, so next to no one flying rotorwing will bother with IF certification.
A rather different discussion, seeing that most single engined helicopters are not allowed to fly IMC in UK.
Thankfully, we are allowed to do more here in UK. But anyway, all of the points you raise limit the likely usage rate of a helicopter.