I don't play the whacker game with ARES and RACES and the like, the yellow vests and dime store badges, car stickers and whatnot are not for me. With all of the money the government takes from me at gunpoint they can buy their own radios and hire their own operators as far as I'm concerned.
BUT I can see the benefit (personally and to my family and neighbors) in being an experienced operator in certain circumstances which may arise and I defend having the license as it is the only way one is going to get the experience to know the ins and outs of the diverse range of equipment, infrastructure, spectrum, external factors and so forth which form the knowledge and skills of a competent radio operator. In short, you are not going to get the time of day from other hams if you are not legit, and without them you will not learn those skills.
A nice theory maybe in your neck of the woods. Around here, not so much...
Most of the people I know who are knowledgeable are grey men... However I do not engage in any of it, I am an aspiring author and its all just research to me.
I’m a new General Class and have great respect for those who earned their license before they dropped the CW requirement. My goal is to learn CW before the end of the year. I feel lucky that I have a local club with active members and usually 40-50 show up for the monthly meetings. The area I live in took three direct hits from hurricanes in 2004. Charley, Francis and Jeanne left me without power for six weeks. That was a wake up call and I’ll never be without coms again. As a noob, I just purchased my first HF rig, a ts-930s with built in tuner. I picked up a g5rv dipole and should be up and running early next week. (Have to trim some trees first).
73