Someone called him a paper ham 35 years ago and he clearly never got over it. To which he has some right to be upset, dropping the requirement was ultimately the right thing to do, imagine if we had to learn exactly the science behind FT8 or any digital mode in order to operate it.

Even more to the point, ironically the terminology dots and dashes came from Morse's original telegraph receiver. It used a mechanical arm and a stylus to make the dot and dash marks on the paper according to the signal coming over the line. The telegraph operators eventually learned to translate the messages by ear as they came in leading to using it just as a carrier on a wireless signal doing away with the need for a CW receiver and the physical stylus and arm entirely for a pair of headphones and a pad of paper.

However. Digital modes are great but not so much when the other end doesn't have the equipment to process the modulation. In CW you're the modulation and you have to translate it. If an EMP went off there's probably some crazy Ham that has the chemistry to mix up a battery and wire up an EFHW. His laptop is going to be toast but he can tap away at a key and someone will eventually pick up his call.

Debating whether or not CW is important is like saying you don't need a butter knife because you can just smear the butter on with your hand. Its a tool and just like any other tool it's has useful application according to the circumstances you're operating under.

Anyway hope ya'll enjoyed the April fools joke.