I'm basing this assumption on what those we will be negotiating with in the EU have been saying about no pick 'n' mix deals.Finally, I disagree with your assertion that the only alternative to full single market membership is the hardest of hard Brexits - I suspect Hugo may have led you up the garden path here with his constant mantra that talking about 'access' to the single market is meaningless. Of course it isn't, that's what trade deals are for, and furthermore Britain is in a different position having been a member which will enable it to negotiate a much closer relationship than other countries can.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/bl ... efb00f5504" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;Tusk tells May she will not be allowed to adopt a pick and mix approach to the Brexit negotiations. By that he appears to mean that Britain will not be allowed to keep the advantages of single market membership while rejecting free movement. (Tusk used the phrase “pick and choose” but clearly meant “pick and mix”.) But the journalist Georg von Harrach thinks this is a hint that the EU will not accept the compromise on customs union membership.
I see no reason to think the ultimate negotiating position will be greatly different. It makes sense for them to stick together on the basics. And really, anything which takes us out of the EEA is a hard Brexit because we will be on our own having to negotiate lots of trade deals with lots of people in much stronger positions than ourselves. If you say that staying in the single market isn't leaving the EU, then to me it looks like there is no such thing as a "soft" Brexit.