What kind of person would be more suited to negotiate a deal? And what did the people vote for? Wasn't it just "Remain" or "Leave"? There was zero intellectual thought put into any of this. It's on the UK that this realization comes when it's inconvenient.

Would the EU bend the rules if a different person was at the table? Or would they simply say the same? There is no incentive for the EU to give back / bend their rules. I don't know why people expected that.