You can actually still go “full reporting” – it is called IFR. That requires extra training, and I do accept that some pilots do not want to make the effort to do the extra training but want the full position service. That is human.
In the old days, if you flew below 5,000 feet there wasn’t even a requirement to have a radio – let alone go full reporting. Maybe we should change that so people are protected from themselves!
Maggott17, it took me two years to find the Kookaburra, but in all it was something like 49 years between the time it first went missing and was found again.
By the way, even when aircraft are in full radar coverage (as the aircraft was that disappeared over Barrington Tops a few decades ago) and IFR, they can still go missing for a very long time.