I can only comment on my own personal situation where I have had a tracker since 2004. We took out a new mortgage in 07 on a new house and that was also a tracker. We did look at fixing around 08 at the time the crisis was starting to get some momentum but in the end, we decided not to, simply because it was blatently and clearly obvious that at the end of the period we may not be allowed to return to a tracker rate and even if we were, it may not be at the same rate we were originally on (0.75% above ECB).
Our situation was perhaps slightly different from other people in that me and my better half at that time had over 40 years banking experience between us, both within banks and also outsourced providers, we knew how to read mortgage documentation and knew how banks behaved.
Nobody mis-sold me a fixed rate because we knew what we were dealing with. It is probable that some people were mis-sold fixed rate mortgages and to me it also seems the clause preventing people from returning to their original tracker rate was an unfair clause and it is has been deemed so by the courts.
However, when I read cases on here and in the papers I also have to say that for some people, (and I fully accept everyone is different so please don't jump down my throat here) got into financial difficulties not because of their loss of a tracker but because they were carrying far to much debt and frankly made a mess of their own finances. It's not always "someone else's fault"