The cables are often not run in ducts they're just tacked to the studwork in the house before the plasterboard goes up. This means any new cable is basically a fresh install.

Most UK house construction doesn't really allow for retrofitting cables in the way that seems to be common in the the US

I couldn't tell reading the post, but they may be renting instead of owning? They likely can't do bigger construction tasks like that, so they're forced to use what they have.

Unless it was laid in the 1950s, in which case it's probably aluminium wire rather than copper.

There's an area like that between the local exchange and my house, which meant internet speeds were like living in a time capsule before FTTC came along. Always 25% of what the rest of the town had.

But other than edge cases like mine, I agree. Copper lasts a long time with minimal things to go wrong. Modern solutions like FTTC require their own power, air conditioning, etc.

Ham radio operators hate it.