Hey Anon. You are correct in what you say. I have studies this subject with interest for many years.
Q has told us that the official channels were not used, this is interesting because they did get a legal FISA warrant. If they had the legal fisa warrant then there would be no need for Hannigan to resign. This means that there was illegality at work most probably.
The options are:
The lovers attended GCHQ or MI6 way prior to the announcement of Trump announcing his candidacy and all candidates for the Republican nomination were surveilled.
The lovers made several visits to collect data or convince the surveillance to continue.
The UK deep state was instrumental in this plot and requested the visits to offer their services.
Hannigan acted without government approval but with the approval of the monarch or other royal household member
I personally suspect this entire plot was part arranged by the UK monarch via MI6 and GCHQ but I have no proof of this. I do suspect that Christopher Steele was sent out into the private sector to provide the dodgy dossier to create distance from MI6, I suspect this happens a lot with operations that have serious implications, Steel being in the private sector will be a fire break or so it was hoped. There is also zero use for a spy with a high profile and a face as recognisable as his other than as a consultant, however his reputation for supplying mis information makes his career dead and buried. Maybe they will zip his body in a bag and say it was suicide.
We must not forget that the UK deep state under Tony Blair had a history of Dodgy Dossiers, remember the mystery of Dr David Kelly, maybe we can finally find out the answers there as well? He supplied info on Chemical weapons used to justify the Iraq War, many believe he was about to speak out publicly that it was all a load of crap and the justification dossier was based on lies (which we now now to be the case)
The most important thing that need to happen in the UK is Tony Blair needs to be hung.