3. Because they can't change it until they do a runway inspection. Knock a couple out of the sequence for a runway inspection to prove that the runway is safer than what is being reported. Fark that keep the aircraft moving please.
While it may not make a difference at some aerodromes, wet as opposed to dry can cause a weight penalty for the operation for some not to mention the crosswind limits for others!!.
Therefore I would not considder "Fark that keep the aircraft moving please." to be good practice.
There are also the people who do the paperwork based on the dry figures because that is what they see but when they check the ATIS, they have to start again!! - a clear case of the Fark'n aircraft not moving!!
Not to mention that the person asking stated "bone dry". I generally find that wet runways go through a period of being "damp" before being "bone dry". Since damp is not reported as wet, and Glasgow rarely suffers from that hot hair-drier wind that in other places can dry runways from wet to bone dry in as little as 20 minutes, it would be reasonable to say that a check is long overdue.
4. When departing and going south, why can't we go direct, outside controlled airpsace with one of these new fangled Deconfliction Services?
Since the question was about outside controlled airspace, it should be obvious that in Europe that is below FL195. Therefore I think we can discount the issues about directs above FL195. I have never heard a request to leave controlled airspace denied and very seldom delayed. However, trying to get back in again 100nm down the road can take longer and burn more fuel that was saved by the direct leg.