You did deride it, albeit without any ill intention. I also do not feel overly offended by your argument, which is not totally baseless. My comment, read with s

You did deride it, albeit without any ill intention. I also do not feel overly offended by your argument, which is not totally baseless. My comment, read with some distance, came out too harsh. It's just that the metric of speaker headcount/native economic power is not the sole metric for universal language selection, and it is one I do not think is the best. Headcount would have us all speaking mandarin, a language with little really global world reach, and really foreign to all westerners because of its tonal characteristic. English is probably the best option. Huge cultural reach globally via Hollywood, easy phonology and an easy grammar. If spelling could be simplified (or at least made sane) it'd be almost perfect.