The Drop - yep, SEIFR is only a commercial matter; you can fly privately. Rather a strange situation - the lesser experienced pilots in PA28's etc can go flying happily in bad weather (subject to IMC rating and minima vis.) yet aircraft flown by professional pilots to company operating procedures cannot fly in IFR. That's not having a go at PPL level flying, there are some great IFR PPL's out there, but it seems paradoxical that pilots who fly every day cannot operate passenger flights in IFR with one, very reliable, PT6. Ho hum, that's the law for you!
It's now legal in Ireland, France and many JAR other states (my list is not by me!) to operate SEIFR, so it's only a matter of time until the UKCAA concede - however, as always, they do seem to be dragging their heels.
The caravan is a fantastic aircraft, there's no doubt its cargo lifting ability is second to none in its class. If the US are happy to have SEIFR aircraft whizzing about, then I really don't see that we have any argument at all.