I'd push back on most of your points.. There is so much liquidity on the streets for XMR (and BTC) for cash trades. Going through Bisq or similar platforms isn't required. You just need to be in the right network. Your article doesn't say how the criminal was identified. I'd bet the farm is wasn't from any Monero transaction heuristics.

So you're happy to participate in a global financial network that has an open and transparent ledger for auditing purposes. I get that for a store of vlaue as long as you are a happy taxpayer and like funding the corrupt old establishent. That's fine and maybe when the government knock your door and ask for your bitcoin keys that they've linked to your real life indentity so they can issue you your freshly printed paper BlackRock vouchers as a replacement then great 🤟 I understand this is the price you are willing to pay for NGU and keeping bad guys off the street. And when you shout "but I've done nothing wrong, you can't do this" then remember this is the future you asked for.

Without privacy there is no freedom.

Constant hardforks in Monero is old news. Sethforprivacy dubunked this years ago.

When I read posts like yours I genuinely lose hope of bitcoin ever changing the world. It'll create a new generation of wealthy taxpayers who will bend the knee and kiss the ring at the very most. Monero users on the other hand I've always found are willing to give the noble class the middle finger regardless of its price.

I wish you good luck but we are cut from a much different cloth.

#1 #3 You can get Monero KYC free easily. If you need huge amounts, buy Bitcoin KYC free -> swap to Monero. Tada!

#2 Doesn't make sense. It's either private for everyone or no one. You can't have it both traceable for criminals and private for honest users.

#4 Weak point too. You are worried about hypothetical future "privacy leaks" while your blockchain is completely public. Concern trolling. If you would read that article you would see it was only an increase in probability of choosing sender, wasn't deterministic. And even if they guessed correctly they would STILL NOT KNOW amount sent OR who the reciever was.

You cant do necessary upgrades in the privacy arms race without hardforks. The code is FOSS that is all that matters. If slim chance that all devs and maintainers nefariously collaborate we will just fork the project like we did from Bitmonero.