It wouldn’t be a problem if it didn’t obstruct flows, but at both St Pancras and London Bridge both these areas are very heavily used, with flows disrupted by people faffing around the retail outlets. So either the thoroughfare needs to be wider, or the retail outlets should be elsewhere - so whilst, just about, functional it’s hardly a shining example of good design which is after all the premise of this thread.
As a near daily user of both, atvpeak an off peak times, I can honestly say I don’t recognise the point about flows being disrupted by people faffing around the retail. At St Pancras by far the largest faffing is at Eurostar departures (as experienced twice this week). I see gas more faffimg (directionless dawdling I prefer to call it) on non-retailed thoroughfares, for example at Paddington (also twice this week) and Kings Cross LU.