They only need to lean on relatively few people - the humans who live in the US and who run Facebook, Apple, etc. to put back-doors in their services. Or worse, they put back-doors in their services while denying that they have done so.

The fact that strong encryption still exists will be of little use if it's not what the bulk of people actually use.

Despite all of the rhetoric and public statements, the legal burden and actual enforcement seems to be going very much the opposite direction in the US and EU. There is good reason to suspect that the monitoring (and centralized censorship) infrastructure built up in other nations could end up producing the opposite desired goals in the long term.

This is seriously wrong, and that word "laughable" is a key-word for others who share you larger assumptions.

Let's assume that protocol enforcement is heaped upon those who can do nothing about it, not "laughing" techies with time and skills; .. until it is. Common access to network infrastructure is clearly being monitored and more and more requirements and restrictions are added each year, not less, in a dizzying number of ways. The ability to find a transaction from a "regulated IP address" used by those who do not have the skills or background to understand what is happening, only increases each year.

This cavalier analysis is counter-productive to someone who wants to a) stay our of the security swamp and b) live life somewhat un-monitored with individual choices.