There is a catch...
When you read an accident report you may come across the phrase, "operation beyond experience/ability level," or words to that effect.
Just look at the high-profile accident that killed JFK, Junior, his wife and his sister-in-law. He was flying at night, VFR, over open water in marginal VMC. All of this was legal but fatal because he was beyond his ability to do that. (He went along okay for a while but finally augered in in what looked like a typical accident due to disorientation, when he hit the water and sank, killing all aboard.) You could argue that layers and layers of rules, as in the UK, would have prevented that one crash and you might well be correct. In the States we rely instead on common sense to keep us from going too far in what we attempt to do with an aircraft.
Certainly there have been high-profile crashes of light helos in the UK that were put down to VFR in IMC so that I don't think more rules will necessarily do the job of keeping us safe.