Locally we work a military station for basic service but request and usually are provided with a traffic service to climb/descend through cloud to be VMC and then change back to basic.
All very straightforward and they provide an excellent service. On rare occasions on a nice sunny weekend afternoon when everyone is out we might be refused basic service but if the weather is good VFR why would you need it anyway?
The whole "traffic / basic / extended" issue is no more than another UK-only peculiarity.
When in Rome do as the Romans