Outside of very special industries and knowledge you can blatantly ignore non competes without consequence. They are basically unenforceable for most circumstances and no attempt will be made.
The point is that is is quite easy to get a job, and just not tell your previous employer.
And they don't want to waste time paying a lawyer, either.
You'll almost certainly get away with it, regardless of what your contract did or did not say.
As you say, under most circumstances most companies don't actually care even if they have some boilerplate non-compete clause. But some do, especially in places where close client relationships are important or where it's a senior person moving to a direct competitor.
You and I might know these clauses are unenforceable garbage, and we might be able to get a lawyer to send a nasty letter to the former company if they attempt to use it. However, that situation is not common for everyone, and unfortunately the most vulnerable in our society are the ones who get punished because of it.
It's not the employees who's actions are influenced. It's their potential other employers' actions that are influenced.
By "get go" do you mean time of signing or when you're leaving? And if the latter, what does that look like at the time you're leaving?
Like you, I’m also not a lawyer, but I did engage the services of a firm when I left. My lawyer informed me in no uncertain terms that my noncompete agreement was enforceable and cited several cases where a) their firm took employers to court to have the agreements tossed and lost and b) unsuccessfully defended people who did what you did and were sued by their previous employer.
In general, “fuck off, sue me” usually isn’t a great legal strategy.
That's different than "totally". It's harder for a janitor, who might not have the means to fight back, to try and call that bluff.