Do I look like a lawyer?

No, I didn't think so.

Why is it then that I've had to tell a) agency M that they are potentially causing some UK-resident couples to do illegal adoptions, while needlessly restricting the options of others and b) agency T that they are very behind on regulations that might therefore be costing them business?

I'm not bothered about agency M but agency T was beginning to sound like they might work for us. Agency N is the one that has been successful but seems to have really really long waiting times (they claim to have one post-Hague couple but given the waiting times they quote, I'm not sure if they can - though perhaps this was an extremely flexible and lucky couple). Agency P hasn't been successful yet but we are in contact with a couple working with them. And Agency C which we used to love, hasn't answered any emails recently; agency O also looked promising and is having a think about whether they could work with us.

(Update later: Agency T is looking like they would do this for us but our SW is sounding more pessimistic as she can't find anyone who has done any successful US adoptions to the UK yet. I guess the fact that we know the couple who are with Agency P and they are at least 6 months ahead of us is promising. Agency P probably wouldn't work for us for a few different reasons though. And Lawyer Y hasn't replied to my query about how exactly working with him and an agency - which would be necessary in the cases of T, O and C - would work in practice for us).