Kind of wish they had kept the Morse code requirement for the radio license. Felt like more of a connection to the old ham requirements and history
Removal of morse has allowed far more people to reach more technical levels of ham radio. And, in my anedotcial experience, dropping the requirement hasn't impacted the popularity of morse code. I'd wager its more popular than ever because of how many more hams have HF access compared to limiting access to folks who learned code just to pass a test and to promptly throw away their key.
Fear not. Code will be with us for decades to come.
You can be as connected to the past as you want in this hobby. It's at the point where we have people getting remote islands on the air by driving a boat onto shore that has a radio and an amplifier, raising an antenna, and then people can operate from either a boat anchored off shore or back home over Starlink. And they're doing it in Morse code, so you have this nice blend of the old and the new.
As someone who learned woodworking I'd not like to make a wagon wheel without guidance from a master.
One of the problems of inexperience is not being able to appreciate the subtleties, and how many seemingly disparate things relate in ways that end up being important.
Now I'm an Extra, and have been licensed long enough to join the QCWA.