> no one under 40 uses that method except under extreme duress

You live in a tiny bubble if you honestly believe that.

OK you're right. It's not an age thing, no one answers unknown calls now.

"Eight-in-ten Americans say they don’t generally answer their cellphone when an unknown number calls" https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/12/14/most-amer...

And that study is from 3 years ago, it's surely a higher percentage now than it was then.

20%, guess I am right

I don’t know why this is the hill you’ve chosen to die on

You stated it's not a solution. It clearly is if it works for more than 80% of people.

It’s not a solution if it doesn’t work for 1/5 users of a system used by millions.

I've been on-call for decades and 24x7 caregiver and it's not an issue, even in emergencies:

1. For non-emergencies, just use social media or email, which have better anti-spam filtration.

2. For most true emergencies, "hang up and call 911" just like every doctor's office recording says.

3. For urgent non-emergencies, either accept the consequences of waiting until your can reach the person via option #1 above, or get creative. Contact friends of the person and ask if they can get ahold of them... or someone IRL near them to get their real-world attention.

4. Consider what happens if you lose or break your phone. Responsible people let a reasonable group of people know how to reach them, and the rest contact a member of that group.

25 year odl here, I prefer phone calls as my primary method of communication, and often place calls as my first method of contact with previously-uncontacted entities. Please check your assumptions :)