The gripe of the thread is knowing the rules and ignoring them.
Yes, in speech MANY words and conjunctions are identical, which is YOUR point.

When email first started becoming big, educational experts theorized that it would help literacy and writing skills. Instead we're changing to more phonetic spellings - yes this is a more natural evolution given the process being used, but that is the gripe of this thread.

We are not proofreading ourselves very well, or at all (I'm very guilty of this myself), and then defending why we don't (instead of trying to get better at our written communication skills). Whether or not we're typing in a rush or have time to compose with more clarity, we are hoping to make sure our messages are properly spelled so that nothing detracts from said message.

When someone types a message that is filled to the brim with errors (be they grammatical or spelling) we tend to start to focus not on the message, but just the errors, and the message is lost or misconstreud.

Side note: I wonder if this is the case more and more in any non-English speaking forums. Does anyone know of any German/French/Russian/insert ANY language forum where the spelling and grammer are getting worse? Just because WE are all typing in English (and pointing out errors) doesn't mean this isn't happenning elsewhere.