[gambiting]

>>you always have the free option to do your business in person.

I guess you don't actually live in the UK then. There is nowhere to go "in person" to interact with HMRC for instance. You can still send them paper forms for most things, but the result will be saved in your online HMRC profile, so you haven't bypassed anything.

>>I would assume a basic free option would have to be provided to legal resident of such country.

You'd assume wrong. The argument is that all of these options are "free" so what are you complaining about.

Same thing is happening with banks - branches are closing down across the country in droves, with a lot of people reporting that they now have to travel 1h+ to their nearest branch if they need to do something in person(and annoyingly banks themselves force that - you can't deposit a cheque over £500 online for instance, you have to do it in person for some idiotic reason)