Sounds like another case of one person doing something stupid resulting it a rule being put into place which makes life difficult for everybody else. [Linked Image]

When you say the pole fuse didn't blow, do you mean a fuse feeding just the one house or one on a whole section of distribution?

Over here, the voltage-ELCB was downstream of the individual house main fuse, i.e. Supply -> Main fuse -> Meter -> ELCB -> Distribution panel.

The modern main RCD (where used) is in exactly the same place in the system, except that it may be a separate unit or it may be incorporated as the main switch in the panel itself. The old voltage ELCBs were always a completely separate unit.