We’re getting a fair complement of hand flayers here in the States too. I’m not quite old enough to have thinning skin yet but I don’t like them because of the noise. I can’t figure out why no one realized that "jet" propulsion hand dryer would also make nearly as much racket as a jet engine.

In a small tiled room, no less, where sound bounces horribly. This is right up there with that high level thinking that planting a non-native vine with a tuberous root system was the answer to the (US) south’s erosion problem.

Genius!

We also usually have paper towels over here. Nobody uses the hand dryers either, at least not in the women’s restrooms because there are usually small children present and the noise terrorizes them. Nobody wants to be THAT asshole. Picking on little kids. Tsk tsk tsk.

I’m also not a fan of the paper towels for two reasons. One, the waste. And two, I like the hide on to stay on my hands as well. Soaps and towels are usually very poor quality and so are quite caustic (practically straight lye) and rough. Your hands will be chapped to the point of being painful within 10 minutes of washing.

I’ve long since gone to alternative measures. Super absorbent Shammy (chamois) cloths. I’ve carried a means to clean up quickly and efficiently since my swamp tramping and trail days. Grandma was a huge advocate of the miracle of chamois. I think it might have been her that gave Douglas Adams the idea about the humble towel’s importance to interstellar travel. Yeah, you’re playing fast and loose leaving the house without a decent chamois.

Hope you rant more, your rants are funny. I was particularly amused that you were worried about this one being niche. I doubt anyone anywhere is completely happy and content with the quality and standards of public restrooms (maybe the Japanese — I hear theirs are truly top notch). We just all stiff upper lip through our discontent because we know they could be poorer quality or no public restrooms.