Yeah, that's rather my point.
Even before Barbarossa, the OKW had decided that Seeloew wasn't doable. The Brits didn't know of that decision, to be sure, but they knew that the Heer lacked the barges for troop transport, the Kriegsmarine lacked the ships for escort, and the Luftwaffe couldn't seize control of the air. They judged right.
The Brits actually did send troops from the UK to North Africa in 1941, both around the Cape route and iirc a convoy of tanks through the Med when the situation was still in doubt. What was it, Operation Tiger? The UK was sending troops, arms, and materiel to the Med
almost as soon as Italy jumped in.
So while they kept forces on Britain and trained up, and gathered in American troops later for the European invasion, they still sent out large units even
before Barbarossa kicked off, which kinda tells you what they really thought.