I think this verdict was inevitable. The minimum extra they need to do alongside it, is schedule actual exams for students who want to take a chance on getting a better grade in November. It used to be that students could do resits at that time.
This year, students should be allowed to take the grade they're offered or do the exam late. Not much help for university applicants of course, but at least they'll get a real option rather than a year on hold.
In the old days (ie: before education secretary Michael Gove) they used to have other stuff like coursework, and year 12 exams/units they could use, so there might have been a realistic plan B. Now they're stuck with whatever happened last year and whatever happened in the mocks.