People though so hate phonics because it requires practice that they would rather guess perpetually at all they see. Reading is just not for most people.
So, that is what schools are for. The biggest BS that the "ed biz" has propagated is the "drill is bad". Drill is NECESSARY to develop ANY skill.
And as to the notion that "reading is just not for most people" note that before WWI, the US had a 90+% literacy rate.
"Kenneth Lockridge's study of literacy in colonial New England is relevant here. Lockridge found that, in 1660, 60 percent of New England males signed their wills; it was 70 percent in 1710, 85 percent in 1760, and 90 percent by 1790. He estimates that half of those unable to sign wills could read. Thus, there was practically universal adult male literacy in New England by 1790."
Source:
THE REVOLUTION IN AMERICAN JOURNALISM IN THE AGE OF EGALITARIANISM: THE PENNY PRESS
http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/mandrejevic/schudsen.htm
Note that while this only applies to males, but since women are historically better at verbal tasks than men, I would say that the potential capacity for literacy is near 100%.
The low literacy rates today are a massive indictment of the "education professionals", who appear to be "lack of education professionals".