Basic they will only speak to you if the want to move you and they won't give you a traffic service because of controller work load, and you won;t get a deconfliction unless you paying a landing fee. Might as well not bother and keep 121.5 on and look out the window and save 40 quid in fuel in a SEP and 400 quid if flying the TP.
If this is the way it is working for you, then I understand and even sympathise with your problem. I don't believe this is how it is supposed to work - if you're getting this regularly from notified LARS units then you need to MOR it, as they are getting paid to provide ATSOCAS. I'm in the lucky position of having a well staffed unit with controllers more than happy to provide a service to whoever wants it, regardless. The only time you wouldn't get traffic/deconflition is if you're not in radar cover, which is fair enough. In the case of high workload, most would say "traffic service, reduced/late warning of traffic due controller workload" so you'll still get some traffic information which you wouldn't with a basic. I think this might go some way to explaining why I like the system - you tell me what you want and I give it to you. The basic premise of that is good, you must agree.