If the UK government got their hands on the crown estate it’d be sold off to some Russian/Chinese/Arab billionaire tosser within a year.

It may seem somewhat ironic to you, but being out of the hands of the government is a net positive for the people of the UK. Because the crown effectively has to justify its own existence, it in turn has a vested interest in keeping its holdings, stopping them from being asset stripped by foreigners.

I’m not against the idea of an elected head of state, but only in the situation that the crown continues to exist as a wholly separate entity from the government.