As a user of ATC when I fly IFR or get flight following, trying to have a conversation with a masked controller, thru the airwaves and radios, in a very noisy cockpit, is ludicrous.
Even before the masking nonsense, the mistaking of word tranmissions has caused fatal accidents.
I fly back and forth to Vegas every weekend in my 172 with my friend who was my instrument instructor, and is head of the FAA safety committee. The #1 reason flights are being cancelled is NO PILOTS. The Pilot population has been shrinking for a long time and there are not enough instructors to replenish the current crop of students, and there sure in the hell aren’t enough new students to ever fix this problem in a short time period..This problem will take many years to fix.