I very much agree. One of our local MATZ will only grant tranist 'threough' the MATZ at 3000!.
If there is any flying going on they try and sterilise the area - which of course the a/c they operate largely do not need.
To be fair however I have had pretty good service from some of the Americans - they are a bit paranoid about you not flying overhead but traffic info, squawks - just like a mini-RIS. (Yes I know but Traffic doesn't fo it for me!)