The outside world does seem to have some concerns about the UK basically giving up bothering much. Denmark has added the UK, except Wales, to its Red List, although, how a Danish border guard assesses Welshness is not clear.
Running large scale infections in a semi-vaccinated population is probably not a great idea.
A lot of simple actions could still be taken, which would reduce infection levels. These actions are also why flu has been largely absent for the last two winters. Covid is not an alternative to all the 'traditional' ailments, it is additional to them. We had two very near misses in recent years, with SARS and MERS, both of these were stopped by concerted actions from the states that they manifested themselves in initially. Freedom day - or Don't Bother Any More Day - seems like some sort of strutting, posturing, typical Johnsonesque fake bravado, that others (in general) will take the consequences for.
As for the accuracy of the UK phone app, maybe we might find out where the money has gone?
A lot of people don't really have the 'choice' about how to respond to the "new circumstances", they will 'choose' to isolate themselves, in the same way that a lot of ex-cyclists 'chose' to give up cycling, because car drivers don't care about their safety.
When Thatcher (allegedly) said "There's no so thing as society", she may have been merely making an observation, rather than a policy statement.