You almost certainly would not have been allowed to board without a return ticket planning to do a visa exempt at Heathrow by just saying you hadn't finalized your plans yets. Airlines can be fined for that. And I've flown several times a year to Thailand over the last 6 years. I even had my return ticket scrutinized pretty thoroughly, it certainly wasn't a quick glance.
If you have a visa you are not usually asked by the airline (because they presume this has been done as part of the application) but if you plan to travel on Visa exemption, you are very likey to be asked - I always have been when traveling from the UK
If you get an STV visa you can't change it to any other kind of visa in country. If you want to do this, you're better off getting a standard tourist visa