Yes you are quite right but I have to say it is a very common airline occurence that everyone turns a blind eye too. In the hundreds of pilots we have I only know of one who refused at anytime to exceed 250kts below F100 and he has retired.
The big problem for us is getting high and fast because you can usually only address one of those problems at a time with success.
In an ideal world you wouldnt be held up high but UK airspace is so busy its common place