LEM - you are right , of course, misunderstanding on my part.
Again, shouldn't it go back to the decision on the day being based not only on the type of airspace in which you are in (Mid-Atlantic vs. overhead London vs. open FIR) but also the likely occupants of that airspace?
In Class A airspace throughout most of the UK, I would not expect to find much non-TCAS-equipped traffic above FL100, so a decision to select TA may be more useful to others around.
Descending to FL100 directly overhead the CPT VOR with RA selected will probably mean in takes a LONG time to get down, after completing numerous TCAS RAs - that said, prudent decision in that case would be to turn and take the shortest route away from other traffic.
I would never suggest not following an RA - just placing the burden of manouvre on the other aircraft...with emergency descent required we have enough to worry about, for at least the first few thousand feet.
If we are on an unchanging descnet path, no matter what rate, then even if other traffic were on a direct collision course then they only limited manouevring would be required to remove them from that previous unsafe flightpath, hence I'll select TA and let TCAS do the co-ordinating and the other chap do the RA.