Things have been changing too fast for developers to keep up with, since Project Canvas (YouView ) was first announced. It's instructive to read past articles that appeared in the media press over the years, and see the pressure that was applied to shift the developmental direction, after the ISPs came on board. If it had developed as originally conceived - with not just Flash but with MHEG-IC and HTML5, and therefore genuinely an open platform which would be available to many different content providers but genuinely committed to the interests of FTA broadcasting instead of being formed as a weapon for BT to combat Sky - it could have been a different story. Who knows?
And Freetime has its own backstory (a bit of this at http://www.techradar.com/news/television/tv-s-big-takeover-why-freesat-is-offering-up-its-best-tech-feature-to-all-1247714).