IM,
I have served on three rather special overseas tours - none in Cyprus and none on a UK Base, so I can't comment on your assertions about closing times &c.
When we accepted this last posting plot 2 1/2 years ago, inter alia we looked at the sums and realised that there would be a drop in our overall income but also were excited about the remote location and what it would offer the family. Would we did not anticipate that there would be such a drastic cut in allowances (and not just LOA; consider the lost of IA when travelling and an overall pay-freeze, SCV contributions, ents allowance, for example). My pay is down by over GBP14K pa. Luckily we had a second income from an enterprise in the UK so that has shielded us to some extent. Other Government Departments do compensate for loss of spouse income when accompanied overseas (eg FCO, DfID, SOCA, HMRC) and typically do not charge the individual for housing. In stark contrast, at my location heating costs were very high because of the houses and the extreme winters; the OFA and X/Y Schemes are punitively expensive.
Comparing an overseas posting with an internal (UK) posting is spurious. Firstly, If I was posted back to Leeming, for example, there are employment opportunities for spouses, as well as the opportunity to commute to take up professional employment in Leeds, Newcastle, York or indeed, London - whereas there are none in my last os posting. Moreover, I would not be paying a King's Ransom for SCV every 6 weeks; instead we'd be able to to visit WP Minor at his school and watch him play rugger on a regular basis (and before you say that CEA is a personal choice, I have had 5 postings in the last 6 years thus the alternative would be to leave the service).
Bottom line, irrespective of issues such as spousal employment and boarding school costs, the set-up and living costs of an overseas tour in majority of cases exceed the LOA or COLA that is now paid. Why should SP be expected to largely subsidise overseas tours these days? Similarly, those working in Main Building now are having to dig deep into their pockets for living and working in central London.