Incidentally, I hear that there is considerable resistance to the 'accessible IR' from airline pilot unions - they want less spamcans in 'their' airspace, it seems.
There are virtually no spamcans in "their" airspace already. There aren't be - they can't climb high enough. I have flown IFR to some far corners of Europe and have almost never seen another GA plane. All one sees is a load of contrails at FL300...
Having listened to the stumbling incompetence of a 'continental' PPL/IR holder trying to fly an approach at Bournemouth once, I do see that they may have a point.
That is a very small data sample.... You can find d1ckheads in any discipline.