The only thing worth saying on that topic is that it matters very little what you (or anyone else) thinks of me, whether it be good or bad. I don't even judge myself that way; I only care about trying to be better tomorrow than I am today. Anything else is a waste of time. And certainly, my response when I encounter hypocrisy is to try and fix the hypocrisy. Not to throw up my hands and say, "well, I guess none of it matters then."
The above out of the way, I want to try and engage with the deeper argument you're making in good faith.
What you're missing here is that all of the business tracking and personalized profiles you bring up as the real problem are using the exact same technology as these read receipts. The point is not that read receipts are the worst thing in the world (although I think they're unhealthy and they show a lack of respect for the person you're communicating with). The point is that they illustrate the broader pattern of tracking in a form that regular people understand and emotionally connect with. That's a good thing.
The other thing you're missing when you talk about criminalizing homosexuality and prohibition is that pervasive tracking is a tool that allows powerful people to oppress less powerful people. Pervasive tracking outs people's sexual preferences, it allows companies to illegally target individuals based on protected characteristics, to advertise to people at their most vulnerable moments, and to exclude them from opportunities that they would otherwise have. Far from being a nothing issue, privacy is fundamentally tied to people's ability to express themselves without fear and to hide from companies, governments, and even individuals that want to harm them.
Fixing personal email tracking has a pleasant side effect of also fixing the tracking that happens in both phishing and corporate emails as well. Like you quoted:
> I understand that sometimes the specific triggers that make people care are stupid, but my response to that is never to ask people to care less. It's already hard enough to make people care about things.
Yes, sometimes people can be encouraged to care about things that are actually unimportant, or even outright wrong. But privacy isn't unimportant; privacy is an essential tool to help protect individuals and marginalized groups from mobs, governments, companies, and individuals that don't have their best interests in mind.