Chopperpunter
It's all very well for a helicopter company to think 'out the box' and come up with wonderful ideas but what you fail to realise is that these wonderful ideas cost money and take time with no guarantee that they will be approved by either the CAA or the helicopter manufacturer at the end.
For example if a company decided on a plan to develop some sort of helicopter rig autoland system then the company would have to go out on a limb to design, manufacture, seek approval for, airtest and finally implement the equipment. This costs money, a lot of money. At the end of this process the equipment may not be approved OR, which is probably closer to the truth, the oil company turns round and says 'Nice piece of equipment but as it won't be required that often we're going to give the contract to the other guy because he can do it cheaper without it!'. People can do all the thinking they like but if the helicopter companies don’t make a profit and have money for development then none of these thoughts will be coming out of the box. What you will get is a low cost service with fewer pilots and engineers, smaller stores, less aircraft with no backup. This will mean more delays, more cancelled flights and more frustration for the offshore worker.
Incidentally, it is highly unlikely that the CAA will ever reduce the landing limitations on offshore rigs in our lifetime. Regardless of any new equipment that a helicopter may have, it would be too controversial and if there was an accident, which could be directly attributable to the lowering of limits, then the blame would lie directly at them ...... and they ain't that brave.