i've lived in the UK all my life and have experienced all of those things here. If you haven't fair enough but you don't speak for the whole of the UK.
Here's an article explaining the impact Star Wars had here in the 70's and 80's:
Sounds like it was pretty dang big here in the 70's and 80's. And i can tell you it was no different in the late 90's/early-mid 00's among my age group. Collecting the stickers, regularly drawing Star Wars characters, buying figures, watching any shows with anything related to Star Wars, reading anything with anything related to Star Wars.
The holding point here is that you're circumscribing popular culture to the much narrower nerd culture. It's like saying American football boasts great interest in Europe because there's people playing American football over here, too. Surely because we've got leagues, teams, and people watching the sport, that means it's well-integrated into European culture, right? You say you grew up in the UK, so I'll spare us both the platitude of an answer. Also, ignoring the relativity aspect of it would be foolish - specifically: How does it contrast to the cultural kings of the applicable land? The all-too-evident answer is (again) that it falls very short. Here's where the comparison to Star Wars is particularly striking. You're overplaying its cultural impact, relevance and status in the UK, for whatever reason I'm struggling to understand. Nothing of what's written in the article, and none of the videos you've posted, back up the picture you're attempting to paint on the brand. (Let it be known: I was never expecting them to be able to do so, either.)
Just as an addition, Star Wars comes off as a brand without a filter - pumping out more rubble than likely any other franchise on the planet. But in doing so, culture, and interest for that matter, were never placed on the other side of the equation by default. Well-illustrated by a quote from the very article you shared: "Everywhere you looked in the late the ’70s to the mid ’80s — magazines, comics, toy stores, even the sweet counter via Star Wars biscuits and regular Star Wars promotions on breakfast cereal".
Even breakfast cereal. This has nothing to do with interest or culture. This has all to do with a property that one would deduce as having lost its artistic integrity long ago, placing its sole focus on the monetary, until one day meeting the end.
Moreover, just to be perfectly clear, "Star Wars was everywhere" illustrates the experience of only a small fraction down the line. Hence the website on which the assertion was made. The 'Star Wars nerds' are the only ones actually saying "yes, it was" to that statement.