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> It couldn't have hurt to use and example of "22/05/2020"; then it is still infuriating, but clear.

Assuming you're addressing OP with this part, I think that was their point.

When an application presents you with "04/05/2020", you have no way of knowing whether it means crazy American dates or normal-people dates.

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This is reason enough for me to use 2020-04-05 exclusively. Lexical order is a bonus.

Just wait, someone will implement that as May 4, 2020.

It's possible, but very unlikely. The year-day-month convention has never been used anywhere that I'm aware of. YYYY-MM-DD is such a good idea it was turned into an ISO standard.

> "04/05/2020", you have no way of knowing whether it means crazy American dates

In just about every professional setting I've been in (in the US), Americans are just as confused as everyone else. We deal with people and documents/data from the entire world too. We look for clues elsewhere, such as other dates from the same source that have any number greater than 12, etc. There are very few documents these days where you be 100% confident without some other confirmation.

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