you seem to be oblivious to the fact that "play" can do more than play audio.
Right. so why are you pretending that this feature doesn't exist, or is not consequential? playback alone is not the same thing as playback with effects.
> for straight playback of audio data
who said that is the use case here? the original link is just to the man page itself. YOU DECIDED, that the only use case is straight playback with nothing else. that might apply TO YOU, but others might be keen on utilizing the other features, hence why they were added in the first place.
You are being unnecessarily combative.
you seem to have an inability to use the phrase "to me". you dont dictate the patterns or usage of the population, only yourself.