I would argue that English already ended up with a simplified variant in the form of international English as practised by many second language learners of Engl

I would argue that English already ended up with a simplified variant in the form of international English as practised by many second language learners of English. It's not American English, it's not British English, but it hovers somewhere in between, and tends towards leaving out the idioms that require a higher degree of literacy (and being well-read in particular). It's the language spoken at international conferences, colleges outside of the Anglosphere, and political summits; and countless bastardized variants are practised by tourists world-wide. Bear in mind that ⅔ of all the English speakers (over a billion people) are second language users of the language. Of course what you are left with is a language that doesn't really reach its potential for beautiful prose until you settle for a specific 'proper' variant of English — with all its bells and whistles, comparatively fixed orthography, and quaint expressions.