Agree with your points on tax simplification in general but I think for deductions it depends on the use case. In the examples of a local newspaper or a charity

Agree with your points on tax simplification in general but I think for deductions it depends on the use case. In the examples of a local newspaper or a charity it has the added benefits of (a) introducing a level of competition which presumably would help keep things a little more optimised and (b) giving the citizen the choice on what they can fund. Another example I came across recently was a corporate tax break for funding vocational education. The rationale being that the corporate looking to maximise their gains would sponsor graduates that could work for them, indirectly aligning curriculums with industry and increasing graduate employment rates.