Re: Be careful what you wish for!
"The result will be higher access costs for all customers and a reduced appetite for further investment."
You're forgetting (or stating after the fact), that we've had 7 years of BT increasing access costs (line rentals) with a reduced appetite for further investment, unless you 'give us further taxpayer handouts'.
BT has been anything other than 'Pro Active' as regards to FTTP rollout, blantantly biasing their technical analysis in favour of technologies which suit BT and only BT. (using the biased technical view 'G.fast is cheap, pure/true FTTP is expensive line', without looking at the bigger picture) i.e. overhyping Pointless 'upto' G.fast as the solution for UK rollout of Ultrafast Broadband, 'forgetting' it requires massive exponential 'Carpet Bombing' of G.fast nodes to get anything like blanket coverage, each requiring an active grid-connected Power Supply (as of now).
Pointless G.fast is not cheap and certainly not cheaper than true FTTP, in terms of more rural rollouts i.e. lines greater than 250m as the crow flies.
BT's approach seems more about blocking access, protecting its turf, pushing for further handouts, obfuscating, bamboozling so that Broadband remains an 'upto' arfticially limited resource, controlled/limited by the final piece of copper between the premises and the FTTC/G.fast node, acting as the tap, so BT can charge / 'gouged' tiered structure form of pricing, going forward.
The problem for BT, true FTTP removes that artificial restriction, removing the ability to gouge prices somewhat, hence BT are not in favour of true FTTP, along with the fact their infrastructure is mostly (worthless) Copper Asset Infrastructure (which they need to borrow against).
Let's face it, there is only so much you can put up with as Regulator, before it makes the regulator look predictable and weak. If someone (BT) is effectively sitting on their hands, blocking the doorway, offering no solution to an inclusive blanket approach to Broadband for the UK.
You have to side step them. This is the first stage, before the inevitable full separation.