If it's by and large satisfying passengers and it's turning a profit to Government coffers, why prat with it unnecessarily?
Even the Chuckle Brothers would be able to pay a premium if put in charge of the ECML franchise - AIUI it's
always paid a premium (under GNER, National Express, DOR, Stagecoach/Virgin and now LNER) - the question is whether LNER are paying a better premium to the Treasury than Stagecoach/ Virgin were actually paying under VTEC - that's the benchmark.
Simply turning it into "are they paying a premium or not" is a pretty meaningless benchmark on a franchise that has always paid a premium.
Wasn't the 2 hourly Glasgow London from InterCity days?
Yes - GNER inherited the bi-hourly service that British Rail had previously introduced.
Made sense at the time - as wiring a relatively short distance from Carstairs to Edinburgh meant doubling the frequency of trains from London to Glasgow (in the black and white days when running Glasgow trains down the ECML had no real time penalty compared to running them down the WCML). Also worth pointing out how poor/ infrequent/ "tidal" the London - Glasgow services used to be - none of this "hourly plus regular via Birmingham too" malarkey... kids these days don't know they're born!