Joining at this point would require an insane effort on the UKs side. I am pretty sure that an undemocratic institution like the house of lords would not be acceptable under current EU laws and that is not even accounting for the UKs voting system. The UK would also have to join the currency union. The last point alone makes rejoining very unlikely in my opinion. I think the only thing UK citizens can realistically hope for is, at best, something similar to the Norway model.
Norway is a rule taker that pays into the EU without any influence. They're also tiny and they know it.
This is said with love from a neighbour who would love to see Norway join the EU.
I don't think the UKs collective ego would allow them to join on Norway terms.
If I remember it correctly, members of the EFTA such as Norway have a vote with veto, and during the Brexit Deal negotiations they weren't at all keen on having the UK joining the EFTA because it's far bigger than all the others and would likely dominate.
Yeah, all EFTA members have veto rights towards new members, and you're pretty much correct but it's even worse. The UK economy is bigger than all other EFTA countries combined. There's no way they'd let the UK in.