1. That pesky fuse is there for a reason- the widespread use of the ring main in the UK. Changing a fuse with a knife out of the cutlery drawer is a pleasurable man's thing, IMO. Not quite so macho with the factory molded plugs of course. Those have a stupid little plastic fuse retainer that you have to winkle out with a dessert fork!
Even a wife can change those!
2. Too big? A Brit 1363 plug, crafted from solid bakelite [or truly unbreakable, rubber] and with its massive pins, will last forever. I can tell you that they ain't too big inside, very often you have to lever the wires into place with a meat-skewer to get the lid on! I have quite a few in my boxes of bits that must be 40 or 50 years old and still serviceable. Every time a piece of electrical equipment went to that rubbish tip in the sky we used to cut the plug and as much cable as possible off beforehand, ["that'll come in handy one day"]. The parts are not interchangeable though, each maker's backplate, cable clamps, pins and fuseholders are all slightly different. But there's the challenge! A British Standard Junkbox also contains many plug parts in various states of disassembly. Can I make one up from these bits?
3: The existing standard is too entrenched to change out.
There was a time when we Brits didn't give a flying monkeys about Johnny Foreigner and his shoddy, flimsy products, made out of recycled yogurt pots and designed to fall apart the day after the guarantee ran out.
