I don't blame you at all for getting your DC into MB rather than OA, Talking, but I was merely pointing out that OA is your local school, whatever you might say about MB, and remember you are the one proposing that DC get no 'choice' other than their local school!
It just might also be fair to say that perhaps Oaklands wasn't 'a reasonable school' back then, as much as a) you were, pre-DC, far less into the minutiae of achievement in schools and b) the barriers were much lower- you didn't need an Eng Bacc to get anywhere, like you do today! People accepted mediocrity in education way more than they do today (SMs, anyone?).
But I do agree that the academy thing hasn't been thought through. Personally, I don't want a 'community lead school' any more than I want a 'patient lead' health service, thanks. I would rather the government oversaw them both, in the absence of an impartial, apolitical Body of experts doing it! But even then, you'd get someone trying to Make A Name for themselves as A Great Reformer and experimenting with blue sky thinking then coming up with sponsored academies (and GP lead health commissioning...).
I don't look as the Winchester changes as a fig leaf in that they're not setting out to fundamentally change the way school places are allocated in Hampshire, are they, just 'fixing' a local problem? Which of course might have a knock on effect regarding what lengths parents might have to go to to get the ideal school. Someone said earlier something like 'first Winchester, tomorrow Southampton and Southern Hampshire' but I don't think so. The harsh reality is the MC parents are the ones deemed to have the power (cos they can be relied upon to vote), so it'd take a brave politician to take the Thorndens, Kings and even MBs away from them, whereas the shifting, disengaged 'masses' can, it seems be disregarded, their schools just hand-wrung over.