WHBM, in a single post you have restored my faith in civil aviation!
In the full report it will be interesting to see what happened between the crew declaring PAN, with the intention of returning to Heathrow and subsequently ATC providing radar vectors to 27R.
Either:
ATC simply provided the vectors over central London, with no suggestion of alternatives. Hopefully we'd be told the reasoning behind ATC not following the procedures suggested in the N481EV report.
OR
The crew were given alternatives to Heathrow but elected to remain with their original request. ATC would then have complied with the crew's choice. Hopefully we'll find out the reasoning behind the crew's decision to goto Heathrow.