Are you not a bit harsh on your English spelling?

Not at all. I, too, love the English language, but a language is not its spelling system. Our orthography causes more problems than its worth. A semi-phonetic system like Spanish or Italian would be much better suited for pedagogical reasons. And, as I've said before, it ain't going to happen any time soon, short of the destruction of anglophone nation states.

Rather than coming up with cockamamie delusional, anecdotal, ad hoc, and mnemonic spelling rules, we should just use the brute force, rote memorization process. Either way, few will ever master the system, which is pretty much how it's always been.

Ceci n'est pas un seing.