The thing that strikes me most about this conversation is this: ATC procedures/rules are now at such a level of complexity that a competent person will struggle to understand them.
I count myself lucky - in 7500hrs rotary in the RAF, I was mostly operational or SAR. I never flew a SID…not once. I called ATC, told them what I needed to do, and the answer was invariably ‘yes’. When procedures become the subject of threads like this then I suggest they are unfit for purpose as their whole point is to ease the work burden.
This is why AI aircraft are absolutely in inevitable. A rule based system is, by definition, ripe for takeover by computers, and the days of the pilot are numbered.
I say that as a pilot.