Well I'll give another perspective (not being licensed although I'm told I could easily be

).
Aged 18/19 I was introduced to Amateur radio by a G3 license holder. I was already quite clued up on electronics etc. but back in those days to get licensed you needed morse code (no crib sheets) and school and sports etc. and just the weekly radio club meeting did not allow me to get suitably skilled in morse code.
Off to Poly/Uni to study Electrical and Electronic Engineering with Communications being one of my final year specialities. Throughout 70's and beyond SWL was there as a very time limited hobby. I became a Chartered Engineer and full member of the then Institution of Electronic and Radio Engineers (IERE) as well as the IEE and the IET.
I'm now retired and have taken many mock tests for Foundation (and above) and have fared well. MOST importantly I've found that if one is honest then at every level (despite ones technical background hence the rambling mumbles I started this post with) you have something to learn.
Getting a ticket just to chit-chat with someone on a technically restricted band, whilst being a valid/required action, then one has to ask "what next"? If no next then the license free bands (CB) is possibly where one should be (note I have a reservation about this latter comment as I know there are many DX CBers etc. that do apply technical knowledge and experiment in get the best contacts they can with kit and aerials etc)
For me I'm currently totally engrossed in COMMS software development. Whilst I could waltz the Foundation (and possibly higher licenses with no real effort) for me "the tick in the box" is not where I want to be UNLESS I can actually be beyond the "tick" level.
I think that as the foundation license is so easy (and quite rightly so) then it possibly needs to be like a "provisional" time limited license. Three years? upgrade or get revoked? Once revoked you can only apply for the next license level up?
The big spanner in all of this is exactly the same spanner that cripples many professional institutions. MONEY! I'll show my ignorance here but is not a UK amateur license tied to RSGB membership? If so they will be really happy to hold on to "foundation sitters" to protect their income as opped to strike them off. Please correct me if I'm wrong!!!!