But my overriding point is that to protect anonymity and fungibility, mining needs to be impervious to control by the State. If that isn't possible, then I wouldn't waste my time on anonymity.
Unless one does not agree with your model of what is or is not definitely going to happen in the future with mining and the State. I say definitely because even though you may turn out to be right that the hammer comes down and we all live under an effective globalist totalitarian regime that controls mining (and lot else), if you aren't right then work on technology that is useful in other scenarios is still worthwhile.