So why do you need a signals square? In fact, apart from non-radio ac, does anyone, honestly, still use those useless things? The only ones I've seen have been rusted solid and beyond repair, let alone fit for use for an aviation purpose.
I couldn't agree more.
There
is a lot of non-radio traffic however, but I think they tend to fly to places where the signals square is not an issue.
SA is Situational Awareness. It can be quite important; last week I flew to Sardinia (LIEE) and we were told we were #2. I asked, more than once, "where is #1" and we had 3 pairs of eyes looking out. The ATCO could not speak English (beyond "cleared for the ILS" etc) so ignored the question. Then we were cleared to land, so we did. It turned out we were #1; #2 was an Easyjet which landed right behind us
I guess the 737 had us on his TCAS... essential for places like that.