IO the answer is very simple and therefore I assume your question was indeed rhetorical....
POLITICS....... Will ensure that the FAA is not accepted on equal terms.
There is nothing we can do about this but there is significant effort in the unelected bureaucrats of Europe to have it there way.
Those who think the politics that the UK shares with the US will protect us from the fact that we have signed our rights away to Europe are deluded. We have a very tricky situation where the US and the UK have a special relationship and this we think this will save our UK operators and in fact could possibly. The rest of Europe does not share that relationship and we have just signed over our rights to them. Sure the UK can issue an exemption for UK airspace and probably will. But an Island becomes a small place in a high performance tourer....
I think that the big boys on the N with political clout will end up down some sort of AOC route with EASA oversight. The little boys will of course be given the option to join the AOC club.
IO540, you can debunk the listening watch as much as you like, but the fact is these comments come from the people responsible for making it happen and it may be coffee break conversations now but there is no smoke without fire...
All I ams saying is that anyone looking at the N reg (or any other foreign reg) at the moment consider the future very carefully.