Buses, and this might shock you, aren't as sensitive to waste as other systems. If you need to get from point a to point b and using the bus is faster than, say, walking, then it wasn't a wasted trip. And if it wasn't shorter, the person who wasted their time is the one punished for wasting their time.

So, no, vague unlisted studies about other systems isn't relevant here.

£5 is not a "nominal fee" if you take multiple buses a week to get to multiple places, transport over a month could add up to hundreds of pounds

A nominal fee would be like 5 pence

Bullshit. I lived in countries with both fully free healthcare and with a small fee, and if anything the system works better in the countries where it's free.

Have have absolutely no conception of reality whatsoever if you consider £5 a nominal fee. None whatsoever. Of course you don't understand buses. You don't use them. At all.