I doubt there is any evidence that VMC above an overcast is risky in any particular way.
These days, everybody who flies for real uses a GPS 100% of the time. I know this will upset some of the usual pilot forum residents but that is the present day reality. WW1 is over, WW2 is over, the Germans were beaten, even a 747 no longer carries a navigator, it's time to move on, and
navigation is not a relevant issue.
And if navigation is not an issue, why object to VMC on top?
It is permitted under ICAO VFR. Just a few countries in the world impose a "sight of surface" requirement for VFR. VMC on top is not a "permission" as such - it is the default international position.
AFAICT the reason the UK CAA objects to VMC on top is because they pretend that GPS doesn't exist, which is a completely proper position given that it is not in the PPL syllabus.
But the proper way to deal with that is to update the syllabus
It is probably true that the EIR will benefit only a small % of pilots, because only a few people have long distance capable aircraft, fly abroad, but do not have an IR. I am pretty familiar with this position because that is what I was 2002-2006. But to object to the EIR on that basis is a retrograde step. We should be thinking of how to
improve GA capability, because the whole scene is gradually collapsing into a black hole. The EIR will improve it.
I don't have time to read the 230 page EASA proposal now in detail (flying back to the UK from Greece) but it looks like a move in the right direction. FAA IRs accepted without flight training but one has to sit ~ 5 exams (perhaps a 30% reduction off the present "90% garbage" JAA IR TK), plus the flight test with an IR examiner (which will itself mean something like 10-15hrs flying for most experienced IFR pilots, to suss out the expected flight exam procedures), plus the JAA Class 1 audiogram or a JAA Class 1 medical (no improvement on the medical front; a huge missed opportunity, sadly).
Bear in mind though that it is still only a proposal worked out by a committee behind closed doors, with just the basics leaking out over the past year or two, so nothing actually changes right now in terms of what insurance policy an FAA licensed pilot may want to secure in time for 2014, or whatever. And FCL008 does nothing for commercial pilots.