I am with you on these things. I have an issue with things in code that do things like limit the temperature of water coming out of a shower head so children don’t get burned.
I am not advocating for children being scalded, but people managed to generally not scald their children for generations...but it seems like a bit of nanny-statism.
Or the stupid new water flow restricted faucets. California wrote new laws a couple years back limiting the flow I think to 1.8 gallons per minute on kitchen faucets. So, when I replaced my old faucet recently with a new Grohe faucet the new flow types were the only thing available. I live in NH not CA. I have a well. Plenty of water here. Now I just let the water run longer to cool down or fill up a pot.
However, I am actually in favor of the 1.6 gallon toilets. I have replaced all three toilets in my 1972 house. I did this because I have a 1972 leach field. That means 3.4 gallons LESS water going into my leach old leach field every time we flush. That turns into hundreds of gallons over the course of a year. Also, the new American Standard comfort height Champion toilet works better than the old 5 gallon ones. This is the toilet that they demonstrate it flushing like 20 golf balls at the home shows. Put the lid down and stand back or it might suck you in.