Yes, good point. That would then almost entirely remove the main benefit of using a system like Zhuyin from a pronunciation perspective. 🙂

But many sounds in Chinese don’t have corresponding representations in English, and even if they did they’d then be wrong for speakers of other languages. Besides, learners of Spanish or French seem to manage fine despite the same letter representing different sounds, so I don’t think pinyin is the problem per se, but simply that students haven’t been made aware of the correct pronunciation.

Yes, I agree! The first part is kind of the point of the article. Either you learn Pinyin properly or you use a system which doesn’t allow you to cheat. Since most people want to use Pinyin, the only sensible option for most courses is to actually teach Pinyin. This is what I will do in the pronunciation course, which also explains the phonetics and at the most important parts of IPA, so hopefully addresses the second part of your comment as well. 🙂

How many people know that Pinyin “y” is purely ornamental and has no pronunciation? Exactly. And yet people say “yin” and “yang” with the y pronunciation.

The second problem is more advanced teachers assume everyone understands professional linguistics so they throw around terms like fricative and labial and IPA symbols without bothering to explain them.