Inferring pronunciation from spelling is very regular in French; the reverse, not so: there may be many ways to spell a sound like “o”, each with a different meaning.

Being more coherent than English is not exactly a high bar to clear...

(at least when it comes to languages based on the Latin script)

That is an extremely strong claim that I simply cannot support. English is beautiful elegantly designed and trivial to learn compared to french.

Also, if you talk on some mid level (say B1, which takes a LOT of effort for french language), you are not going to get laughed at and ridiculed when using it in UK/US/Australia/NZ etc with english. A very common experience in France when trying to use french (I go there every other weekend, its just across the border). Folks from other parts of former french empire like quebecois or corsicans are much more approachable in this and tolerant. Suffice to say their language variant is often mocked by mainland french too, I think personally parisians are the most cocky ones.