The thing is, my dear Nuke, that ATC is a national service paid for from a number of sources but then available to everyone flying in the country. At least that's how it used to be.
You may not like it or agree with it but until someone comes up with a better idea we should stick with it. And the sooner NATS (and it's not just the managers!) learns to just accept it the better.
The alternative is too awful to think about. We'll have non-NATS units sending bills when they're given an early handover and heavens knows what else!
I remember that there used to be a time when when you could rely on controllers to shift traffic in the most efficient way (because that's how you get them off your frequency) not in response to the size of the invoice.