I think it works well because the free data covers much of what the public could want to use (I have used this many times myself), whilst I can't really think u

I think it works well because the free data covers much of what the public could want to use (I have used this many times myself), whilst I can't really think up a case in my mind where non-businesses would want to use the more detailed information (aside from councils who are provided this for free). More important to me than free OS data would be if the UK govt could create a GIS database of land ownership. This is where they lag behind the USA and Australia to my mind...