.. but if you could go in VMC at 3,000 feet why go airways? I cant see how you will get a better routing or necessarily why you will use less fuel. I can understand in a SEP why a higher route might have some safety advantageous, but you can just as easily go high VFR outside the zone. In the zone you may well be at relatively low level anyway.
Because I choose not to fly low level across a large distance of water in a SEP. An engine failure at airways heights will give me a greater glide distance, longer for the ELT to lock a GPS signal. Time to make sure life jackets and life raft are level, make any necessary radio calls (with the likelihood that after a 20 minute glide the chopper is waiting for me) and be better prepared for a ditching.
When I enter the zone IFR on my way to Guernsey I am descended at my discretion as a rule and stay as high as possible for as long as possible.
It is a personal choice and still has nothing to do with claiming to be IFR to get a better service than others......