Dick - this is one occasion I agree with you 100%.
Now, each of the correspondents to your post has his/her own agenda, be he/she a knuck or otherwise (they need a ride in a 1960 Dak - y'know, where 25 of 'em get on, and 50 get off), but they are all, just in this case, wrong.
If ATC is ATC, then it should be ATC. That's simple enough.
But apparently not.
Why our military fast jets seem less able to operate in a mixed environment than, say, one little SE Asian nation where the Jet Jocks firewall the throttle and then hang on for dear life, passing 20000' before they realise they are off the ground, then have to execute a 20 mile final from a SIA as they don't fly circuits, is beyond me. (By the way, they still have F4 symbols on the side below the cockpit canopy to show how many they shot down).
Yes Dick, your right this time - they really do need to extricate themselves from the Halls of Russell and reach for the 21st century.
Pity you weren't right in the unmentionable year - but I'm with you on this one.
