But it does seem to help by spreading payments through salary sacrifices. I'm not sure anyone needs a £1000 commuting bike (heresy, I know, but I don't think you're going to get to work any slower on a £300 bike) and there seems to be a lot of n+1ing.
Spreading the payments helps hugely.
IMO, if you commute many miles, cheap bikes wear out faster. The brakes are crap, the wheels need replacing very soon, cables are often not stainless (and rust).
Then the ride quality is shit.
My £1000 bike bought on the scheme has needed far fewer spare parts (in the same period) than any of my other bikes that I've used for commuting. Chain and tyres so far and that's been it. All of the others needed new wheels, multiple brakepads, cables plus the chains and tyres.
I'm unconvinced there's a big delta between £300 and £1000 bikes (and I'm not talking about bling road bikes). My most expensive bike is the Brompton (while the fold is nice, I'm not really sure why it costs twice as much as my next most expensive bike, other than Sturmey Archer gears make me nostalgic for my childhood Raleigh Commando).
Anything between £350 and £1000 seems incremental. Is there really that much performance difference between most middle-tier components? I have bikes with Acera, Sora, and Tiagra gears. I've no idea what the difference is other than some evidently cost more than others.
It's not an argument about shiny bikes, whatever floats someone's boat, just the impression that you need a £1000 bike to commute a couple of miles. One of our mothership operatives just bought one for £850 to follow the Hipster Spice Route from E5. Despite that it still doesn't have mudguards, puncture proof tyres, a rack and the kind of things a commuting bike ought to have.
YMMV, I joyfully bounce along on my regular commute (now about forty miles) on my commutified Saracen. Riding it is a bit more aerobic than the lighter bike, but it's bombproof and isn't scared of Lambeth-maintained roads, and someone would need to be mental to steal it. It deposits more oil than the Exxon Valdez.