English Should be Revised

[Taem]

Where is says, "The Great Vowel Shift", it is rather well known that around this time, vowels were added in to confuse commoners and keep them illiterate, which was important for maintaining power.

Do you have a source for this claim? It seems extraordinarily unlikely to me.

I recall reading it in a coffee table magazine in a doctors office, I want to say a New Scientist or Nat Geo, as those are usually the first I reach for, followed thereafter by some bullshit pulp or popular op ed piece such as People. I remember the way the viewpoint was expressed made it seem as if, duh, everyone knows this is how it happened and this article is just catching you up on the facts, so I assumed it was something everyone already knew and didn't really take much doubt in that... until now, lol! What, you can't trust whats published in a respected magazine article?!? Treachery! Oh well, I guess I should question everything, even things I think or thought I already knew.

Lots of people have proposed simplified phonetic systems for English orthography. The problem is not the lack of suitably talented linguists. The problem is network externalities.

Indeed, but it is frustrating nonetheless.

The cost of altering it is enormous, and more importantly, who could possibly exert enough authority over English to change it?

Overlooking the insane costs of republishing every work of literature, ads, web-pages, etc., if everyone (all the countries) who speaks English could agree on a common way of pronouncing and thus spelling it, then, as you say, you'd still need someone to enforce it, someone with some serious authority. The only way to get all the nations to change their version of English to the new standard without this omnipotent leader would be if the benefits/incentives ($$$) were tantalizing enough, and lets be honest here, other than helping out billions of new English speakers, this would have no financial benefit (actually a financial deficit). I guess it'll not happen in my lifetime.