> People are confusing their own individual preferences [...] with the larger motivations of the masses.
No, I don't think we are. We're lamenting the motivations of the masses.
Most people want something that 1) looks pretty, and 2) "just works". The advantages of something objectively better (let's assume there's a metric we can agree on) would have to be exponentially greater than the effort to make it work in order to make most people bother with the switch.
On top of that, it's a psychological defense mechanism to simply ignore bad things. Certainly if the effort to fix them is great.
And that gets us to "I don't care if I'm spied on."