I think the overstay fees are looking to a future that doesn't yet exist. I have never seen these eight connectors at Cambridge Street fully occupied (checking on ZapMaps), and my car was practically alone in its glory on a night when the Theatre Royal was performing the most popular opera in the history of the art. I think most people going into Glasgow for shopping or leisure simply don't need a 4-hour top-up while they're doing it, because they haven't come that far from home. I drive 50 miles to these opera performances (I don't think many come so far) in an SR and even I wouldn't normally need to charge again for the homeward trip. They're anticipating a problem that doesn't actually exist, at least not yet. (And if it did start to exist, just provide more parking spaces with chargers.) Maybe they think it's a nice little earner if people forget, but I suspect the thought of a £40 fine might actually deter people who might otherwise top up while they were in town.
As I already said, I don't think the charger that the OP referred to was illogical at all. It sounds almost identical to our village charger, which is a one-car-at-a-time thing that has three connectors - CCS, CHAdeMO and type 2. There is only this one (1) charger in the village and even though it's not heavily used, the idea that someone might hog it for hours - even if they're "only" using the type 2 connector - isn't a happy one. The type 2 connector is a bit of an afterthought. People might use it to balance their battery cells, for example, or as in this case when the CCS connector was out of service, the type 2 would at least deliver something, probably enough to get to another charger. It's there, and it's occasionally useful, but I can't see any justification for waiving the overstay fee just because the CCS is broken.
I just got back from our village charger. I had 54 minutes 30 seconds on the CCS (30 seconds more and I'd have been in the dreaded overstay fee territory) which brought my car from 26% to 87%. That's quite typical. It's now in the garage going to 100% on its granny charger. However, one is allowed to go back for a second bite after an absence of 90 minutes. A guy who lives less than 100 yards from the charger has no home charging at all, and a 72-reg Tesla. I would suspect he's using the type 2 facility to balance-charge after bringing the car up close to 100% on the CCS. But he's still subject to the overstay fee to keep the charger open for other people.
Personally I think they could waive the overstay fee for a few hours in the middle of the night. There isn't a queue during the day, and it lies all night unused.
I've had another thought. The ChargePlace Scotland chargers used to be free. They only started charging (money) last year. It's entirely possible they were much busier then, being used by people instead of their home electricity which has to be paid for. (Although I never saw the village charger being used much even then, and I pass it all the time as it's at the end of my road.)
I wonder if the fines relate to that period, and were never reconsidered after the charges were imposed? Along the lines of, OK you can have this much free electricity but after that go away and let someone else have a go. But now you're paying (usually) just as much as you would at home, people aren't going to have the same incentive to stay hooked up for hours, and maybe in some cases the fines are excessive.
The village charger overstay fine isn't that excessive, £1 a minute, given that it's the only charger in the place - although as I said I think they should waive it in the middle of the night. I think slapping £40 on the second you breach the 4-hour limit in Cambridge Street is quite draconian, as there are eight connectors there and you can always get one if you want it. As a Wagner fan, I can see me having to come out to move the car during one of the intervals, which is daft when nobody is waiting to use the charger anyway.
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