Mike,
You wrote -
The licensing requirement stems mainly from the concept of Public Transport and Aerial Work. It presumes that members of the general public who are paying for a flight need additional protection because they do not have the knowledge to make a proper assessment of the risk involved. I don't have a problem with that if you are offering pleasure flights or air taxi/charter.
The anomaly is that. at the moment, A to A pleasure flights in aircraft of less than 2730KG need to use a licensed aerodrome yet A to B air taxi flights by day do not. Quite ridiculous IMHO.
Cheers,
Barry