I think you are missing a vital point or two, Zacs.
Only the most naïve of Brexiteers believe that everything in the garden will be rosy should we leave. Indeed many of us – me included – believe that there will be a period of considerable instability following our departure (though nothing like the Armageddon forecast by some Remainers). Because, of course, so entwined are we with the EU and its institutions. But the difference is that to cope with that instability we will not be hidebound by the ever increasingly serious encroachment that the EU is making into their lives. Furthermore, that encroachment will increase as the EU struggles to cope with the needs and requirements of 28 (plus 5 candidates) very disparate nations.
You can ignore predictions from both sides about what will happen whether we stay or go because nobody knows. But with the evolution of the EU heading in only one direction the risk for the UK is not to leave but to remain. We’re not facing a leap off a cliff. We are contemplating the release from the shackles of a moribund, outdated institution that is no longer fit for purpose (and hasn’t been so for at least twenty years). Growth in the EU is the lowest of any area in the world bar Antarctica. There’s a great big world out there full of “ordinary” nations who make their own decisions and form their own relationships and trading deals with countries of their choice in a manner of their choosing. The UK cannot do that. Normal nations do not have to accept the free movement of people from 27 other nations in order to trade. They do not have their laws determined by a supranational unelected elite. They do not have a foreign court as the final arbiter for much of their legislation. They do not have to pay huge sums for the privilege of selling their goods and buying those of other nations. They do not have to fund a huge bureaucracy (£150m per annum just to up sticks from Brussels to Strasbourg ten times a year). I could go on, but there is nothing in the long term or the UK in the EU. If we were not members we would not be seeking to join. I could go on, but I’m sure you get the gist.
You can rest assured that if we do leave there will be no be no moans from me when short term instability ensues. It will be a small price to pay because I believe if we stay, in as little as five years the electorate will wonder what on earth they were thinking when they cast their votes in 2016.