HD, No slight taken!!
Thought it was maybe just a perception issue because you continued to do radar and gave up tower... thus losing a skill set. Always looks harder from the 'outside'!
True that EGLL App/Dir is probably the most regimented/systemised approach function in the LTMA, but then again it does have to be. It is pretty routine (saying this never having done it), exactly for the reasons you stipulated - lack of airspace. However this does allow for more emphasis on nailing the correct spacing time after time hour after hour.
Might be slightly mundane, but still an immense skill of concentration to keep that going. Never mind the silly notion of sharing a frequency!!