Max Chat - I think I see what you are getting at in that non-mil aircraft theoretically only have to recognise the standard 2nm/2000' ATZ part of a MATZ - however you will look v stupid flying inside the MATZ boundary without clearance if you have an airprox and anyway it's just bad airmanship to ignore airspace restrictions.
One of the reasons Mil controllers use the not above 500' QFE is that if we (the mil) are operating in accordance with ATC instructions, we are not illegally low flying - a similar dispensation does not appear to exist in the ANO for civ traffic.
Clutch QFEs are for deconflicting circuit and transit traffic, not for giving neat zeros on the altimeter for touchdown.
Strangely enough the military can manage to use QFE at mil airfields and then magically switch to use QNH at civvy airfields without disaster or confusion - most of us do it all the time so we are hardly unversed in the ways of the world outside. Many of us just prefer QFE to QNH as it does give standard heights for standard procedures and is one thing less to think about.
The NATO standard helicopter join used to be 500' QFE at right angles to the active runway so it wasn't just UK being difficult....people will be moaning about why the US still uses inches of mercury for pressure settings instead of millibars or hectopascals next.
