the muppets make up wright the regs .its like the book of bull s**t the bible.
I'm not sure the people who write the regs are really muppets. The regs have flaws, I grant you, and like all standards are incomplete and always will be. But it is a massive challenge to write, in one book, a standard that covers every single situation, device, risk, method and safety feature found in electrical work throughout the country. You could write a whole book just on accessibility for maintenance. They have to deal with conflicting demands from different interested parties - legislators, manufacturers, electricians, architects - and come up with a compromise. Would you rather they left room for manoeuvre or dictated everything? 'Make nice joints' is too vague, 'The box shall be secured to the joist with two 3.5x25 gold-passivated countersunk woodscrews 20 +/-2mm above the plasterboard' is too prescriptive. Somewhere they have to find a balance, and in doing so they get called muppets...
My version is that if damage to decor or fitments might result or significant making-good is required after access, or it takes much longer to access than to check/correct the fault itself, then it's not accessible. I don't fit carpets, and I don't want to have to call a carpet fitter to refit a valuable carpet properly after I've gone poking around under it for a disconnect. Thankfully I don't touch domestics.
I also agree that a craftsman can make a sound, permanent, maintenance-free joint with a good quality screw terminal box, but given that either or both parts of that equation might be lacking...