London has spent 20 years making it so you don't think about tickets. Just tap in and out and get the cheapest possible fare. No wonder you don't need ticket offices! The rest of the UK - not so much. You find yourself asking questions like "can I use this ticket to get a train leaving London between 4pm and 7pm?" only to later realise there are two different tickets with the exact same name. (Seriously, it took me 2 hours to work out what was going on.) So, yes, ticket offices are probably a symptom of how confusing and badly run rail is in the UK. But maybe don't kick away the crutches before curing the patient?