I don't know if you are being sincere or not seeing the forest for the trees. You are citing examples such as flying at or near airport property with ATC approval. Does this happen? Yes. You may be hired to do building inspections, take videos or any number of things at or right next to an airport. And if so, sure, it would be important to know what the local traffic patterns are so you can steer clear of manned aircraft taking off and landing.
But That Is Not What Most Of Us Are Discussing.
We are talking about questions and scenarios given on the test as if we were flying a light plane across country by taking off from one airport and landing at a separate airport many miles away.
There are questions on the test asking you to properly identify the correct METAR for a certain day at St Louis airport and give the expected weather concerns. It asks you what the freq is to contact ATC and talks about the striped or solid lines on the taxiways at the airport. I don't need to know how to read a METAR. I have a weather app on my phone telling me the forecast for the 1/2 mile circle I will be flying in. I don't need to know the radio freq to contact ATC because we are told NOT TO GET ON A RADIO. I don't need to know about off shore winds creating fog or icing. I can't fly if I can't see my UAV so if fog rolls in I'm shutting down. And I am not flying in sleet, snow or freezing rain.
I'm sure that you can come up with a scenario where someone, somewhere is actually operating UAVs in those sorts of situations. Great. But they are extremely rare and a niche in this profession. The vast majority of us see most of this as overkill or overreach.
I see it as something which could be solved by having different "ratings" instead of a one size fits all approach. An example would be personal and commercial motor vehicles. Nearly everyone gets a basic Drivers license which rates them to operate a car or truck up to a certain size/weight. You can also get a Motorcycle endorsement to ride a motorbike on the roads. I got a Chauffeurs license which covered everything from driving an ambulance or a hotel shuttle van to a school bus.
I also graduated the JB Hunt truck driving academy in Lowell, Arkansas with a Commercial Drivers License with a Haz-Mat endorsement. You can also get additional endorsements with additional training such as "tankers" and "flatbeds" and "tandem trailers".
If you are never going to do anything but drive your car or pickup truck back and forth to work and occasionally help a friend move a couch do you need to get a Chauffeurs license? No.
If you are going to run a "hotshot" business delivering trailers loaded with valves or couplers up and down the highway to factories or chemical plans, you are going to need a CDL for sure.
Please tell me that you can't see, in any honesty, why a waiver to fly at night would be necessary in a situation like this, where a police chase ended in a snowy field and a
Mavic 2 Enterprise with a spotlight attachment was sent to scout out the suspect vehicle while a M210 with zoom and thermal hovered nearby for overwatch.
And While I'm certain that Police Dept has all of the proper waivers on hand, my point is, they are simply unnecessary.
If a farmer hears a strange sound in his back field at 2am, he should be able to launch his Phantom a couple hundred feet up and fly out over his pasture to see what is probably stalking his lifestock, without having to submit a waiver application.
THAT's the sort of stuff we are saying makes No Sense.