Dick,
The fascinating thing is that the regional airline pilots who wanted the change had absolutely no interest in finding out how the system worked in the USA – the country which invented aviation.
Using your own words, CODSWALLOP. RBA went, observed, then wrote a long speil about how things ARE NOT ICAO in the USA (aviation invented there - spare me - so what?). They are the same clowns that just allowed everybody to carry handguns.