Oh yeah I have a Canuck friend here who did the same thing via his spouse. Much simpler & less expensive process. I’ve spent nearly £9k on visa fees since arriving in 2016, and I’m about to spend nearly that amount for immigration lawyers & UKVI fees

Yes, we were all prepped to go exactly that route (I think we were looking at £6k at the time). Fortunately we were procrastinating (I was on a new work visa) and the settlement scheme was announced a few months later.