Why bother with ATC at all, when we can solely rely on marshallers and rampies for safety assurance?
Guys; bear with me. This might seem too radical for some from the sheltered world: and no insults are necessary. This is a story about the real world; it does happen.
When I first went to Italy, and went to a stand-up cafe counter, I learnt that their system was pay first with the madam and then collect from the long bar. WTF I thought. Well, PDQ, I realised it worked great. It was different, but worked great. I waited a minute, paid and received an excellent boiling coffee and fresh crostini standing at the bar.
Fast forward to return to N.Europe and the buffet canteen style. Stand in a queue for ages; arrive at coffee machine; stand in same queue for ages and pay. Find some grotty table to sit at and drink tepid coffee. Give me the Italian system any day. But foreigners think it 'strano'.
I can't remember the airport, but it was busy and long complicated taxi-ways. Ground controller was 100 words a minute.
Consider the norm. Captain asks for push & start. ATC give start clearance and a lengthy pushback instruction - "tail west, push to C, pull forward to abeam #62, beware of push back from #60." Captain attempt to read this back having forgotten to have pen handy. He then relays this to the head-set man, who then tells the tug driver. Swiss cheese anyone? Maybe English is not first language of any of them. Maybe captain's first visit and is unfamiliar. "Say again," might be very common - on a busy frequency. And, as captain am I really interested in the push-back routing? Do I have any control over it? Can I see where I'm going? No to all. I'm really more interested in what the taxi route is going to be AFTER the tug has gone.
Now, at the forgotten airport:
Captain asks for start. This clearance is given so that a/c arrive in a timely manner and correct sequence at the relevant runway. Captain then tells headset man they have start clearance. He, or tug driver, then ask for push-back clearance and receive the lengthy instruction with which they are familiar in a language they may understand better. Any caveats are added and understood. The ATC guy may not be the busy ground controller, who is looking after the taxying a/c; he may be just a push-back coordinator. Captain is asked to release brakes and off you go. Crash avoidance is responsibility of headset man + tug driver. They know the place and can see where you are going. (Last time I looked the wing mirror had been removed from my a/c, unless you are tug pilot.
The point being it worked a treat. It was different, but worked great with no traumas. The guys who controlled the motion of the a/c also were responsible for not pranging it. It sure cut down a lot of radio speak and removed a few slices of cheese.
"The mind is a wonderful thing and like a parachute: it works better when open."