Very interesting to see the current poll results...
Is the Bitcoin protocol's privacy "good enough"?
Yes - 17 (35.4%)
No - 14 (29.2%)
Not yet, but it will be after the taproot upgrade - 17 (35.4%)
Total Voters: 48
To me, if we ignore the Taproot upgrade for a moment and combine 2 and 3 the results would be something like this
Is the Bitcoin protocol's privacy "good enough"?
Yes - 17 (35.4%)
No - 31 (64.6%) <------- 65% says No
Total Voters: 48
What does it mean? Aren't we satisfied with Bitcoin's protocol privacy?
Don't confuse privacy with security. As far as security is concerned, I think it's rock-solid, as has been shown by more than a decade of failed attacks and attempts to break it. No issues there.
As far as
privacy is concerned, things are not so good -- yet. There are ways to protect it, but it's not automatic, one has to be aware of the various privacy issues and do things in certain ways in order to protect it. I think this is what's reflected in the poll result.
For sure no question about the security at all. But privacy is debatable I think it’s good enough to be useful in public transactions. Unless you want to have a super private or secretive transactions still and yes it’s still possible like you said.
The issue is probably privacy by default, and it's not. You've got to work a little bit (just a little bit, not too much) to get additional privacy by confusing others who may be looking (and they are all looking). So we have stuff that got invented or discovered such as CoinJoin and then you have altcoins or shitcoins that are working on this aspect, so they are considered "privacy coins".
Bitcoin is "good enough" but not for very large amounts because the anonymity set is still limited. You can do some CoinJoins with some new wallets such as Wasabi or JoinMarket, and you can even use centralized mixers or services or exchanges or gambling sites and most "normal" people won't be able to track you. I do just enough so that I'm not in any trouble and just do a couple more hops so my coins look normal.
Can't wait for the new taproot stuff, should be able to do better CoinJoins as well as cheaper multi-sig transactions.
It's the story of 2 people running away from the bear. You don't have to outrun the bear, you just need to outrun the other guy.