Re: Nomin..ally paying attention to what people asked
(a) Users who just "google" it on smartphones and every other device they have. They don't type URLs, so it isn't needed and won't make it helpful or easier.
(b) you will need to maintain both, because some people will think .co.uk and others will expect .uk - if there was not a relevant link, why would Nominet have decided (against what was actually offered/discussed) to have this 5 year "reservation" based on ownership of co.uk (and not the "oldest registered variant" including the SLDs etc).
(c) I'll have to have both .co.uk and .uk because users won't really know the difference or which is valid, so rather than lose them, I'll have to support both. In many cases this also means having both variants available for e-mail and so on and so forth. Nominet's assertion that it'll only cost £2.50/year on multi-year terms ignores the other potential costs in having to add yet more duplication and so on elsewhere).
I would wager that the majority of .uk's sold will be to the same people who have the .co.uk variant now. And those that aren't registered will remain unregistered and unloved in both. Like they are now.
I'd also be prepared to wager that a huge % of .com names registered by a company are also registered by the same company in .co.uk if they do, or think they might do business here whever possible. Which means they'll also add .uk too - so that's 3 variants now and most of the time they don't go to different sites either, so it's completely pointless but necessary because consumers don't really know .com from .co.uk and if they even type the address (see (a)) they wont' know which to expect.