That for me is the real danger. Far too many good pubs have been deconsecrated & sold off for housing before the current crisis I wonder how many will be left when it's over. I'm sure many large pub chains are already looking at their estate & their high debt burdens & wondering what can be sold off to developers for a quick profit. Perhaps the only way to protect the future of our pubs would be a change in planning laws to prohibit change of use.
I suspect that, locally, everyone will have their own experiences and assessments of how things may have changed as far as the licensed trade is concerned - and there'll be a wide range of experiences, assessments and opinions; not one universal one.
To take my immediate area, two pubs have closed in recent years, both of which were 'PubCo' owned and of the fairly large kind that were built between the 1930s and 1950s in roadside suburban residential locations. Having stood empty for a while, both have been converted. One has become a Sainsbury's Local, and the other split between a Co-op and a Greggs. I'm bang between the two, about a twelve minute walk from both. Both sites have been well-patronised since opening, and they have been an absolute god-send since March.
Since those PubCo operations closed as pubs, four micropubs have opened within the same walking radius. They're all locally and independently owned and all have grown steadily into apparently strong businesses (and three of them remain open in Tier Three for pre-order takeaway right now).
I admit, therefore, that I actually far prefer having two reliable and convenient shops, and four independent micropubs, than the previous two PubCo pubs. Purely anecdotally and reportedly, there was often 'bother' at those old pubs, whereas I've not seen or heard a peep of trouble from the micros. If that's actually the case, then I can imagine that the council, Police and Casualty are probably also quite keen on the way things have changed, too.