I live in a state that inflicted none of the Covid nonsense. It was eye-opening to me to see other areas that were under their governments thumb. I flew commercially eight times in 2020-21. The 2020 flights weren’t terrible because they were sparsely populated and they weren’t fanatical about masks. That changed in January 2021 and flying really became unbearable. It got even worse the next few months with the “vaccine cards” such that Grayhound and hitchhiking seemed to be viable alternatives. It did ease but since the customer service bar was reset to an incredibly low level it hasn’t returned to pre-COVID mediocrity. I’ve flown a couple of Canadian airlines this year and the flight crews were about half a step up from “surly.” Commercial flight experience has changed significantly in the forty years I’ve been doing it. Now it is just something to be endured.
I live in a similar state (possibly the same one as you), so the insanity around flying really ticked me off since I was able to avoid most of the insanity in my daily life. Whenever I flew during Covid times, I sat at an airport bar till the last minute, nursing an overpriced drink - no mask. While on the plane itself, I used a “fake mask” (black nylon & pretty breathable). While watching those with “real” masks continually fuss with them & touch their faces.