I don't think we are defending the status quo. Some of us just don't want to be detoured/deadended on the way to smaller gov't (a windmill tilt if there ever was one). We also don't want to get screwed when the tax system gets rewritten by the Congress Critters in one of those "we didn't have time to read the whole bill" marathons.
A) You ARE defending the status quo;
B) Why should citizens be required to report income in a format that denies protection against self incrimination, i.e. denies citizens their 5th Amendment rights?
The government has no business knowing what we do or how much we make. None.
Not only are you defending the status quo, you are advocating systemic deprivation of privacy and systemic deprivation of Constitutional protections.