That is fair enough on what their reasons might be (just like there are reasons for all other changes which all sort of make sense in some way except if you loo

That is fair enough on what their reasons might be (just like there are reasons for all other changes which all sort of make sense in some way except if you look at all of them together and what they did or didn't change it seems like an arbitrary cutoff). Heck isn't Dative nowadays even officially allowed to replace Genetive or is it just that everyone thinks it's snobbish now? Sich des Genetivs zu befleissigen scheint altmodisch. I get the actual szett. That's not the point of dass vs das after the comma. That's exactly my point. It never was about the szett vs. double s for that rule. The thing that trips people up about that rule wasn't the szett. It's the "can you replace the dass/dasz with 'welche(s)' or not". And they did not make that part easier. But that's what the reform was about. Everything was supposed to make more sense and be easier. Except kids that had learned for 12 years suddenly were supposed to use arbitrary new rules in year 13 which would be their final school year exams (replace with 11/12 in states with 12 instead of 13 years). Like you say "das" and "dass" really make the same sound. As did "dasz" (instead of making a "dahs" sound). Side note: just like people not getting das vs dass irks me in German the there and they're really irks me in English. Is it really that hard? (tho on the interwebs we gotta discount half the misspellings nowadays to autocorrect I would presume).