I suppose the point to remember is this - the LPOs have been trained to deal with wilful fare evasion, and no doubt have to deal with a lot of it. That probably informs the way they deal with all cases. They also have to deal with a lot of customers who are totally oblivious to the NRCoT obligation to buy a ticket before boarding at a station with ticket-buying facilities, and then get very defensive when questioned on this. As far as they're concerned, they're doing what they have always done so they don't think they have done anything wrong. We have a lot of complaints in from people who think that we have changed our rules recently, or think that we are "criminialising" them. In their complaints, they tend to describe the LPOs as intimidating and rude, even if most of the time they're actually just telling them politely that they have broken the law (which is true, of course!). Additionally, they also think UFNs are fines, which they aren't. It's understandable that they would feel anxious about this - but we have done a big campaign over the last year to raise awareness that you have to buy before you board. Ignorance isn't an excuse is the eyes of the law
While your broad points are likely to be accurate (this isn't something I know much about, but they seem likely, especially your first three sentences), these only apply to cases where there actually is fare evasion. I understand that a Failure To Pay (FTP) notice is issued under these circumstances, and not an Unpaid Fares Notice (UFN)?
As such this isn't strictly relevant to the subject of this thread, which is cases where there hasn't been a Bylaw offence of joining a train without a valid ticket, because one of the exceptions applies.
I think the company appreciates it's not ideal
I understand that some people wouldn't want to explicitly disclose internal documents or conversations, suppose you mean this from an internal point of view? I don't have any access to any internal points of view, and externally, to the public, it would appear that the current abusive modus operandi is
exactly what the company wants to do, and be allowed to do. It even tallies with marketing that states that you're expected to buy tickets before boarding, even where this has been put up at stations without ticket machines and only part-time ticket offices.