But for a lot of the boaters in question, those who are likely to need the Roving Permit, their primary (or possibly only) contact would have been with the 'lowly peon'! They might not even be aware of the "carefully worked out guidance formulated by our legal team". Don't assume everyone would have read the 'small print' (or even that they are all able to! - after all, even some of the erudite users of this forum have found Nigel Moore's posts difficult to follow! ) They asked, and were told, what they were required to do, and have - some for many years - just done that.
It's no use talking about what they should have done at this point. I think we should now simply applaud the work which has been done by all those who have negotiated the solution to the problem, boaters and CRT alike.