"There's a huuuuge bunch of intermediate steps that could've just been skipped." Except they couldn't have just been skipped. In retrospect? Maybe. But I suspe

"There's a huuuuge bunch of intermediate steps that could've just been skipped." Except they couldn't have just been skipped. In retrospect? Maybe. But I suspect we'll see another several thousand languages in the next 20-30 years, most of which will be very, very much like what came before, and a very few that ultimately matter. I don't think there's any way around that except in hindsight.