Well, perhaps I would not call myself an EMI advocate, however: It is completely true that there is a lot of real horror stories about frozen (and even lost) funds in EMI's. But
1) EMI's are not equal, there are better and worse ones (and the majority of EMI's is designed for a specific purpose, i.e. not for any business case)
2) In a high street bank you can face almost︀ identical complications (I mean, resulting in frozen funds) as well. Nowadays. It is simply so.︁
(Just my 2 cents. 🙂 )
Well, I am afraid that with a high street bank it is (almost) impossible︅ anyway, except perhaps you are a premier client in a big bank like SC or︆ so... (With EMI it is possible; and you do not need a lawyer.)