You bring up some very good points. But to those, I have a question: what is the alternative? Both now (for UK healthcare), and in general?

The "people who previously had zero computing power at their disposal" may be wrong in thinking "they've found the hammer that solves all problems" - but there's literally no other hammer available for them. They're not programmers, they won't write their own software (nor would they be allowed to). Any other option involves so much organizational overhead - both initial and ongoing - that it's a non-starter.

I agree that people routinely use Excel way beyond their own skills. But I haven't heard of any viable alternative.