I self fund Libres, I switched from the 2 to the 2 plus last summer. A couple of comments I have in response to your post are firstly, yes the 2 plus is more expensive per sensor than the 2 but as it works for 15 days instead of 14, the price per day is the same. Then the 2 should have been providing continuous readings without scanning from some time when they did a major update, sorry I can’t remember when. I have several gadgets bluetoothed to my iPhone 14 Pro (my Apple Watch, my Appleplay dongle for my car and the car itself!) In addition to my Libre 2 plus. 95% of the time they all tick along nicely together but I have had a few 2 pluses that kept dropping connection. When this happened I rang Abbott, went through the trouble shooting things they suggest, they don’t generally work! And then they send out a replacement very promptly.
With all this in mind I always have a couple in hand when I order my next lot.
Just one more point you say you are paying £53 per 2 plus sensor, are you ticking the VAT exemption when you buy, I do that and pay £51.74 per sensor.
Edit for typos.