It has been stated that a transition to lower operating cost (and VFR-only) aircraft is the main reason for the decline in the IMCR issues.
Taking the volume of the decline, from a baseline of say 750 in 2002 to 250 today, we get a total of 1500 who would have done it had the numbers remained constant. OK, this is very rough, but what are these 1500 people doing?
Are they all flying permit types? That's quite a lot of planes.
Bose - nobody can beat you in p*ssing contests, and I would never try. But you can never pretend to be a VFR pilot (and neither can I). On every VFR flight you embark on, you have the option of picking up an IFR clearance, and that completely transforms the mission capability.