I know I'm in a minority, as most people wouldn't change the ENCTS passes. But you rather prove my point : If people would be so outraged at paying a few pence per journey which was guaranteed to go back into providing better bus services local to their area, then so be it. However, everything has to be paid for somehow and like you say there is a funding gap already simply maintaining existing bus services, before we think about additional ones.

Public ownership is unlikely to happen either, and even if did there'd be financial pressures on how many unprofitable journeys could be subsidised.

It's possible that bus usage will increase more as we come out of the pandemic and people are hit by the cost of living increase and can't afford to run a car (or in years to come, the cost of an electric car). But I think it's far more likely that we just see a continued decline, sadly, with more journeys lost and replaced to an extent by some demand responsive transport in some areas.