There appears to be an argument building here that we should therefore always ask for a deconfliction service whenever in IMC?
Lovely idea - but a huge imposition on the controllers. Plus as Jock pointed out, given no IMC collisions in 50 years, hard to justify the extra ATC resources to support it.
Traffic service --> situational awareness --> avoidance as required based upon traffic reports seems to me workable, and a lot of experience by a lot of pilots seems to bear that out.
Plus, I've yet to have any problem obtaining a traffic service IFR, and since part of the rules of IFR is I have to be prepared to go IMC, that means that presumably air-trafficers and their managers across the country are quite happy with giving a traffic service IMC, and are aware that they're doing so.
G