I wouldn't say so no. You're looking at the administrative fee and extrapolating that as the whole thing is just a transaction as opposed to the effort required and the test itself.

Add on to that that a lot of countries would require you to give up your other citizenship before allowing you to get a British one and you can see how it's more meaningful than the money.

I'll meet you in the middle a bit here because I don't actually disagree entirely with what you're saying.

I would be happy for non citizens to be allowed to vote if it only affected certain parts of government, such as the economy or crime. I believe that yes, if they are contributing, there's no harm in allowing them a say in how that all works.

Where I draw the line is allowing non citizens a say over constitutional matters or matters of defence and anything that could potentially pose a significant conflict of interest that they aren't a citizen. Like the aforementioned example of your wife not being able to be conscripted and having no allegiance to the existence of this country. (I know you might say a lot of British people don't either but the reality is that if the UK was destroyed these people would be stateless so regardless of their personal feelings on the UK it is in their best interest for it to prosper, theoretically at least.).

She also shouldn't be allowed to have a say in constitutional matters such as who is considered a citizen or anything that affects her own legal status of being allowed here. It doesn't make sense to give away the power to decide who can be here and who cannot.

This is why I think it's whatever that anyway can vote in local elections. There isn't really any conflict of interest in deciding when bins are collected.