Best way forward is to imagine that there was no IMC rating.
We know that the CAA would not accept the proposals for the IMC if it were put to them today
IF IF IF IF .... so many IFs.
IF the
ICAO treaty was not there, where would GA be today?
Outside the USA, it would be
banned, almost certainly - except for purely low level sporting activites, very tightly controlled. Forget foreign trips.
The whole aviation world which means so much to so many pilots relies on a treaty signed around 1944, when regulation was run by
real "can-do" men who had a real vision of the future and were able to properly size up the risks.