EU, USA, and other major Western economies have much higher limits,
UK limits are very complex, and not a round number like 85k, while other countries do 100, 200, 250, etc, and much higher limits, while in the UK the only limit is up to 1 million, if you sold a house recently, e.g. you are required to spread your money across many banks to be in complete safety, this is bad because it increases the risk of fraud, and allow banks to keep bad conditions,
if they would make a limit like 250k USD or so, financial institutions will be pushed for competition, as they will fight for clients who have pensions, savings, investments, and make life easier for people, as they don't need split money and pensions in order to stay in 85k limit
if you have 1 000 000 debt, they will chase you for money, but if you had 1 000 000 pension/savings/investments good luck to get back anything above 85k....
if you have a workplace pension with X provider, and it goes bust, you will get only 85k. average UK workplace pot by the time of retirement is 200-250k
or if it is higher, at least you could spread it between 2 pots, but if you follow the government agenda, all marketing from pension providers, there is absolutely a case to increase the limit to hold let's say 100 annual minimal annual wages. and round it to 200k or so