Rejoining isn’t necessarily inevitable. Any damage is already done and any gain from attempting to rejoin the EU within the next decade or so will be undone by the show of political instability.
Now that the UK has left, it’s better to stay out and just make do with what they have. Maybe if the government was less incompetent or more forward thinking then the UK would be able to use the fact that London is the second most important city in the world and do something actually useful or innovative.