I agree in the sense that in both cases the argument that holds water is less about what’s “better” and more about what’s practical. The status quo is how milli

I agree in the sense that in both cases the argument that holds water is less about what’s “better” and more about what’s practical. The status quo is how millions of people do it, so if you want to communicate with them you’ll probably be more successful learning their conventions vs. convincing others to use your own. Getting philosophical, I believe there could be a more efficient/learnable notation system, but I’m bearish on one inventor or committee inventing it in a lonely tower, because of how e.g. the French and Spanish academies try so hard to prescribe clarity for their countries’ official languages and then people just go and do the organic language evolution thing to meet their local communication needs anyway. But there are rare counterexamples like Shong Lue Yang, a spiritual leader who created an effective writing system for Hmong. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shong_Lue_Yang https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shong_Lue_Yang