Basil small piece ( I love the name, does it refers by any chance to Fawlty Towers' owner reproductive organ ? ) I do not think ACARS was invented to pass on destination weather. It can do that too, but that was not its purpose.
On the Contrary FIS was designed for this sort of info in the first place in order not to surcharge actual CONTROL frequencies. With the ATIS increase this was less and less frequent in the last years , which led to many States wanting to abandon FIS altogether , or not manning it due lack of staff.
As a VFR pilot , you should praise that IFR , overflying charges paying aircraft are making use of FIS ( RYR also do this over Germany and Denmark to ak for Wx at Polish destinations ) as this will be a good reason NOT to close the FIS frequencies in the future.