Spitoon thanks for the veiled compliment... your's and Chilli's interpretation may well be right. I agree wholeheartedly that IFR/IFR requires separation and that VFR/VFR separation is the pilot's responsibility not ATC... as usual we come to the difficulty in the IFR/VFR area?
Without wishing to get bogged down in that; I agree that, technically speaking, a pilot that requests a Visual Approach need not be VMC or unwilling to cancel IFR. But this is all the more reason to place an altitude restriction on a visual approach, as we are now starting to move into that other notorious grey area relating to Terrain Clearance and ATC instructions?
I suppose you could get out of this quagmire by saying, "Continue VFR, Visual approach approved"?