Only in Great Britain can we have a situation where an IR is extraordinarily expensive and "vanilla" PPLs are allowed to fly IFR, even though they cannot fly into cloud, and that at night you MUST fly IFR.
But having said that, my take on the subject is that IFR at night is not really IFR, any more than flying outside CAS with an IMC rating is *proper* IFR
unless in IMC. It is flight
in accordance with IFR (simulated IFR if you like) but you are on no IFR flight plan at all, you have no IFR clearance issued. A "vanilla" FAA PPL can fly "in accordance with IFR", though not on an IFR flight plan and not in cloud, so what is the difference?
What happens when you try to fly to France at night?