Not used iplayer for ages, but I was using it thru a VPS in a London data centre. Just do an ssh tunnel either via linux command line or run putty on windows.
OK it costs $10/month but that’s cheaper than a UK licence that us German residents can’t have, I think?
The last time I used that was when it simply asked yes/no if you have a UK TV licence. How does it work now that you are supposed to register an account?
Only German TV I watch is F1 on RTL. The rest, as you say, is pants.
Still have my 80cm satellite dish pointed toward the “wrong” satellite. Not my problem if BBC irradiate my dish with their overspill signal 😉