I don't see how this refutes the argument. These proxies and firewalls could just have a copy of the decryption key, no? (And if whoever is setting them up does

I don't see how this refutes the argument. These proxies and firewalls could just have a copy of the decryption key, no? (And if whoever is setting them up doesn't have access to the key, then they probably shouldn't be inspecting the packets anyway) I'd say that the bigger argument against "nothing is worse off if it is encrypted" is that this takes precious time.