I’ve been in valleys with winter inversions so bad that the air is blue with woodsmoke, visibility is a tenth of a mile, your eyes sting non-stop and you have a hard time breathing. It is not pleasant.
That said, I’m on the San Fran Prninsula and burn wood every chance i get in the winter. So few people burn here now that we are a real rarity.
I don’t want any place to be like a West Virginia mountain town with coal and wood smoke as you describe, anymore than you do.
But, most people these days...The Modern Man as the NY Times describes some...wouldn’t know a log from a loaf of bread, let alone know how to start a fire.
But, as is the norm with the government we have, this is ridiculous.