Well, english is not phonetically precise. There are other languages that are much more “how it writes is how it reads” — e.g. bough, cough, tough....
If you'll look at the silent letter rules I posted, which were known and used in the 1830s, you'll see there are phonics rules for the words you mentioned.
Before I found the sets of rules from the early 1800s I believed the same as you that there were many words such as those without rules.
There were 11 words in the english language in 1830 that couldn't be deciphered using all the known phonics rules.
As far as other languages, you're right, I prefer Russian, as you pronounce every letter, no substitutes, no silent, no words meaning different things, 10 endings for conjugation and declension, far better than english.