MikeJS and Kathar1na, I think understand where you are coming from and, of course, I don't disagree completely.
It can be prohibitively expensive to walk from just anywhere to just anywhere. It appears from postings on this site, however, that more and more people are booking ahead at private lodgings (not necessarily for "bad" reasons) which, I assume, would become more and more expensive as demand increases. Not to mention the cost of transportation to and from one's home country to the start of a journey.
I have Camino friends who live in other countries who take long walks in their own and neighboring countries including, yes, the UK. If my only desire was to take a long walk, I might jump onto the Le Puy or Jakobsweg and go as far as I wanted, then return.
As far as the weather goes, I had miserable weather for my first Camino.
By the way, wouldn't it be amazing to walk from NYC to Washington, DC? Or NYC to Boston?? Not, not backpacking like on the AT, but like on the Camino.
Again, I don't think you can tell whether a person is having a meaningful experience just from looking at him/her. All we can do is observe behavior, which is exactly what I thought the OP was addressing.