I laugh at myself sometimes for things like this: I refuse to provide my phone number to the cashier who promises me loyalty points, then I hand over the same credit card number I use for all my purchases. Boy, I really showed them how much I value my privacy!

Same, exactly the same here.

But the other holes in the bucket doesn't mean you have to help. From a real opsec point of view a single tiny hole is the same as no wall at all. But from a day to day view less is less. It does at least reduce the spam.

And there is also, say you plug hole A and you can't do anything about hole B.

Some day something may develop that changes hole B (maybe a new law, maybe it's a service that you can stop using, maybe one org stops cooperating with another, whatever).

If hole A has already been wide open for years then closing hole B may not change much. But if hole A has been closed for years when the opportunity to close hole B comes along, then maybe closing hole B actually does something.

I choose to see it as something is better than nothing and it's worth it to apply pressure and be sand in the gears.

It's got to be better for everyone that there is at least some sand in the gears than if there were no sand in the gears.

I always pay in cash. I go out of my way to get cash and travel to more distant stores to spend it.

How are those two things the same?!