I fear this is still using hindsight to overcorrect in the opposite direction. The critical factor is fomite vs droplet transmission, and we didn't have that in day 1. In the alternative world where covid spreads by touch 1000x more than by air, masks would likely do more harm than good.

Not trying to defend the authorities, I still think they were waaay too far from the optimum course. A few weeks in we already had a fair guess that it's more air than touch. But still, it wasn't as trivial to be solved in one afternoon.