This is so symbolic of what's wrong in America today.
We can't seem to maintain professionalism, basic flying skills, situational awareness, and just plain old mental agility in our cockpits.
So we'll enforce sterile cockpit.
I flew commuter turboprops, and saw natural-born pilots who MASTERED their aircraft, who could make it walk and talk, who knew their airspeed, attitude and configuration with their eyes closed - and could tell you their latest joke or deer-hunting story while they were doing it.
But that's technique, not procedure. Hard to teach/evaluate one, but not the other.
Much like our financial industry, our education system, our government - we cannot hire bright, qualified, morally sound people in enough quantities - so we'll just put some more rules down on paper....