There is probably a good reason for the changes, as you say it is not for us, the viewers, to have any input whatsoever into the decisions as to what goes where.  
If it were left to the British public to decide, then such gems as Russia Today, would probably not earn a position alongside other news outlets.
On a technical note, my TV re-tunes itself, it's one of my options.  There!
Who says we have no control over Freeview services?

You might be interested in reading this little bit (from The Register!)

An attempt to modernise the Freeview channel listing last week proved something of a failure after a stack of planned moves did not take place, thanks to complaints from Sky and a purveyor of adult entertainment.
DMOL, the company which manages the EPG listing, said in July that Channels 1 through 99 will become home to "general enterainment" stations. It also said HD channels would run from 101 to 120; kids' channels from 121 to 130; news from 131 to 150; and adult channels from 171 to 198.
Originally mooted in March and confirmed with minor changes in July, the channel revamp would have seen programme genres more evenly spread throughout the 700-odd channels pegged for TV and related uses rather than have them all crammed in below 120.
Text services were set to shift to 200-299, just below the 300-320 band, which would continue to be home to interactive, "red button" services. A new category, IPTV services, was to be added at 400.

On the day, text services made the move, and some minor channel changes were made by the likes of Dave, Yesterday, Gold and The Food Network. Argos TV made its debut too. Channels 8 and 45 were reserved for local public service stations due to launch England and Northern Ireland, and Wales and Scotland in 2013.
No detailed reasons were initially given for scaling back the planned EPG changes, but DMOL said the "further changes announced in July are on hold pending the outcome of two channel appeals".
In fact, one of the appeals came from satellite broadcaster Sky, which shows Sky News and Sky Sports News on Freeview, putting the migration of the news channels on hold. The other complaint came from an adult channel provider who had requested anonymity.

A DMOL spokesman told us the adult and news channels can't be moved until the two appeals are resolved. This prevents the kids and HD channels being moved because the law insists that the adult channels come last. Ahem.

Not an easy option for "mere mortals" but the custom firmware downloaded to my Humax PVR allows me to renumber the channels to what I like.

I find that after I've deleted those I have no interest in, there aren't many left anyway.