All true and correct, but in general if you file a VFR flight plan from say Bournemouth to Southend, to arrive at 1200Z, and by 1300Z there is no sign of you, Southend ATC will do the "obvious thing" and phone Bournemouth to see if you actually departed
In most cases the answer will be No so they yawn and bin it
But you may have just crashed somewhere... and this is where the FP has some value. Now they can raise the alarm, fish it out, and start looking for you on the filed route (or
here, probably more successfully).
I would never say it has absolutely zero value, but people need to understand what it really does:
- no right to CAS transit (the FP will have been binned long before you get there)
- no improved chance of getting a CAS transit (as above)
- no improved ATC service (as above)
- no PPR or PNR function (except in rare cases)
A FP (VFR or IFR as appropriate)
has to be filed when crossing international borders, and it has to be filed for all flights within some countries' airspace (Greece, Spain in CAS...).
VFR FPs also do get lost from time to time, especially if the DOF/ parameter is used to file one in advance. The reasons for that turn out to be variable.