I'm finding myself reading all this with very mixed feelings.
Yes, there's immense relief. But, tbh, my main feeling right now is anger. To see what we all always knew laid out in such bald language is truly damning. All these explicit references to (paraphrasing) previous so-called good practice in fact hobbling witnesses, rewriting history and actively preventing understanding. I mean, what it acknowledges is absolutely... well... criminal! Given these acknowledgements, are they going to re-hear all those cases impacted in this way and to this degree, and compensate victims like Maria MacLachlan, then? (Facetious, ofc they're not, but...)
...It makes me think of sport. Both here and in the arena of sport, teeny tiny, incremental details are deemed hugely important to justice and fairness. Boxers literally cut their hair to meet rigid weight requirements, cyclists and swimmers respect intricate parameters to manage aerodynamic advantage, and barristers adhere to any number of arcane rules deemed necessary to the proceedings... Set that against the blasé, "Oh, male bodies can compete against female ones if a single inadequate difference, testosterone, is addressed to one arbitrarily limited degree" and the psychologically devastating "You must call your attacker, who used his male advantage against you to life-changing effect, 'she'" - and it really brings home why we need feminism.