With so many WCs to be handed out Maia should have known that she would have been in contention for WCs so I think it's a conscious decision not to play in England.

For Fran, while there may be more points (and money) on offer back home, with the sheer number of tournaments this week and next, fields are going to be spread so it makes some sense to make the step up to her first 25Ks now to get that experience. That said it is a bit of a strange choice to choose a surface you've never played on before as your first 25K. It may have made more sense to choose a clay tournament as that is the only surface she's played on since Junior Wimbledon last year.