Very nice write up! But I think your point that time doesn't need to be a mess is refuted by all the points you made.

I know you had to limit the length of the post, but time is an interest of mine, so here's a couple more points you may find interesting:

UTC is not an acronym. The story I heard was the English acronym would be "CUT" (the name is "coordinated universal time") and the French complained, the French acronym would be "TUC" and the English-speaking committee members complained, so they settled for something that wasn't pronouncable in either. (FYI, "ISO" isn't an acronym either!)

Leap seconds caused such havoc (especially in data centers) that no further leap seconds will be used. (What will happen in the future is anyone's guess.) But for now, you can rest easy and ignore them.

I have a short list of time (and NTP) related links at <https://wpollock.com/Cts2322.htm#NTP>.