I would like to see local public transport the same - Hamburger Verkehrsverbund have long used the slogan "Der Rhythmus der Stadt" - the rhythm of the city - a fundamental, reliable part of everyone's lives. Where outside London is that the case in the UK?
Edinburgh has high usage of public transport, with well-arranged park-and-ride schemes and peak time express buses alongside a reasonably extensive rail service.
Contrast that to some parts of South Yorkshire where wages are low and many people are on the DSS, but car ownership is a lot higher. Generally because the public transport is unreliable or just isn't running at the right time to get people to/from work. You'd certainly never see any 'A/B/C1s' on a bus unless their car broke down!
Guess which one is operated as a commercial free-for-all and which is state run?
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Indeed, and that is exactly what I did, but you said it was "not that difficult" to do something which, in fact, is sometimes impossible and I suspect most passengers would have no idea which trains were DOO.
Edit: The implication, if I understood you correctly, was that the passeger should ask the 'guard' before boarding - once you have boarded and the train is on the move it would be a bit late !
Of course, I suggest that a reasonable percentage of uninformed passengers, upon being told to "ask the guard", would go up to the first person on the platform wearing any sort of official looking uniform - be that the toilet cleaner or the stationmaster.
In terms of disruption I've previously found difficulty at stations with multiple TOCs where one of the TOCs is experiencing problems. For instance, Edinburgh Waverley once when great disruption was being caused to all East Coast services and the very few EC staff were rushing around like headless chickens trying to sort things out - meanwhile ScotRail and Network Rail staff were loitering around looking bored but using the stock "join the long queue to the information desk" response. I know that in today's fragmented world, the idea of cooperation seems a bit foreign, but
surely the staff of other TOCs have the common sense and information to answer 75% of passenger queries ("when's the next train?" "what happens with the reservations?"). I'm not sure what the average station attendant of one TOC can do that another can't, in terms of provide information, but surely a little communication in these situations could work wonders and allow staff of all TOCs to assist? (This may happen in other locations, I don't know, but the stock response tends to be that if your query even remotely involves another TOC, nothing to do with me mate).
Worst case is somewhere between King's Cross and Doncaster if you have a problem with a GC or HT service and nobody to ask!
Regardless, the fact is that airline deregulation and service innovation means that you can fly from the UK to (somewhere near) many European cities for the price of a decent meal, where in the regulated era it would probably have cost ten times as much. (I'm not sure that is a good thing from an environmental viewpoint.)
I for one wouldn't last five minutes in a verbal debate with you naja! 
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